Is 




/^^^ 







THE LIFE 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 



CHARLES LANMAN, 

AUTHOR OP THE " PRIVATE LIFE OF DANIEL WEBSTER ;" " DICTIONARY OF CONGRESS | 
ETC., ETC. 



WASHINGTON : 
BLANCHARD & MOHUN. 

1867. 
v 




•Win 



Entered acoording to act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, 

By JULIANA T. W. BACKUS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Columbia. 



LIFE. 



CHAPTER I. 

William Woodbridge was born in Norwich, Connecti- 
cut, on the 20th of August, 1780. His father, Dudley 
Woodbridge, Esq., was a graduate of Yale College, and 
educated for the Bar; but about the time of his admis- 
sion, the Revolutionary war broke out, the courts of 
justice were shut up, and he abandoned his purpose of 
engaging in professional business. He was one of the 
" minute men " of his native State during the war ; after- 
wards joined the emigrants to the North Western Terri- 
tory, and was one of the earliest settlers of Marietta — 
which was founded in part by another Connecticut man, 
the distinguished Manasseh Cutler. His family was 
removed to that place as soon as a residence could be 
provided for them ; except that the three oldest of the 
children, of whom William was one, were left at school 
in their native State, until a few months before St. 
Clair's defeat in 1791, when William was brought home 
to Marietta. He remained four or five years in the Ter- 
ritory, passing a year of that time at school among the 
v French Colonists at Galliopolis, and became a thorough 



4 THE LIFE OF 

master of the French language, when he was again sent 
back to Connecticut. He remained there at school un- 
til 1799, and then rejoined the family at Marietta. He 
continued at home, pursuing such studies as were deem- 
ed proper, and in writing for his father, who had now 
become engaged in mercantile affairs, until about the 
time of the formation of the State Government of Ohio. 
It was at this period that among other studies, he com- 
menced reading law ; not at first, with a view to follow 
it as a profession, but rather as a branch of education, 
which promised to be of use in the future exigencies of 
life. But becoming interested in the study, he began 
to look to it as a desirable occupation for future years; 
and it is a little singular, that his most intimate fellow 
student at that period, was no less a personage than 
Lewis Cass, both of whom subsequently resided side by 
side on the Detroit river, and were for nearly half a cen- 
tury the two leading men of Michigan. With the ap- 
probation of his parents, he soon afterwards entered as a 
student the celebrated Law School at Litchfield, Connec- 
ticut ; at that school he continued nearly three years ; 
when, after a creditable examination, he was admitted 
as a member of the Bar of Connecticut, and soon after, 
upon his return to Ohio, he was, early in 1806, admit- 
ted to the Bar of that State, and with flattering pros- 
pects of success, immediately commenced his professional 
career. 

It has been stated that Mr. Wood bridge was one of 
three brothers. The oldest, named Dudley, was one of 
the most accomplished merchants of the day. He it 
was who had the enterprise and honor of building the 
first square-rigged vessel that ever descended the Falls 
of the Ohio. She was a brig named Si. Clair; and her 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 5 

master was a worthy man named Whipple. After con- 
structing this vessel at Marietta, he filled it with furs 
and produce, and taking advantage of a freshet in the 
Ohio, sent it safely down the Mississippi to France, which 
venture was eminently successful in all particulars. The 
youngest son named John, became eminent as a finan- 
cier, and was for many years the manager of the Bank 
of Chilicothe. The sisters of this family, of whom there 
were two, were distinguished for their accomplishments. 
Having been born in Connecticut, acquired his educa- 
tion there, and cherishing a deep affection for her charac- 
ter and institutions, it was not strange that, after a few 
busy months of legal labor, he should have revisited his 
native State for the purpose of obtaining a wife. On 
the 29th of June, 180G, he was married at Hartford, to 
Juliana, a daughter of the Hon. John Trumbull, the able 
Judge and celebrated author of McFingal and other 
Poems. " Withdrawing," to use his own words, " from 
the companions of her earlier years ; estranging herself 
from that circle of friends to whom she was so dear; and 
sundering the yet more solemn and endearing ties which 
bound her to -her father's home, she departed, with none 
thenceforth to lean upon, but her husband, — for the far 
distant valley of the Ohio." A part of that long jour- 
ney was performed on horseback, and to the happy pair 
must have been full of interest and romance. Their 
residence in Marietta was commodious and beautiful, 
the grounds ample, and about them were gathered as 
many of the elegancies of life, as could be brought to- 
gether in a frontier settlement. Although the contrast 
was not small, at that time, between the refinements 
and intellectual character of society in Hartford, and 
the asperities and privations of " Border life," yet, sur- 



6 THE LIFE OF 

rounded as they were by warm-hearted friends, and at 
least all the substantial comforts of life, everything 
seemed to promise a happy future. 

In 1807, Mr. Woodbridge was sent, as a Representa- 
tive, to the General Assembly of Ohio. It was the year 
of the Impeachment and trial of the Judges, for deciding 
an act of a previous Legislature, enlarging the jurisdic- 
tion of Justices of the Peace, and taking away the right 
of Jury trial, to be unconstitutional and void. Mr. 
Woodbridge took a very active, but an unsuccessful part, 
in opposing those Impeachments; upon their trials, all 
the Impeachments failed; and the Judges were honor- 
ably acquitted. Early in 1808, the office of Prosecut- 
ing Attorney, for the county in which he resided, was 
conferred upon him, and this he continued to hold until 
his removal from the State. His professional business, 
had otherwise greatly increased; and deeming it unwise 
to absent himself so much from his home and profes- 
sional pursuits, as an attendance upon the Legislature 
would induce, he declined being a candidate for the suc- 
ceeding Legislature. But nevertheless, he was at the 
fall election for 1809 chosen as a member of the State 
Senate; and continued, by repeated re-elections, to be 
a member of that body until he removed from the State. 
It will be readily imagined, that in the Legislature of a 
State just emerging into independency, when all things 
are new, when its institutions are first to be established, 
its interests to be developed, and the first impulse to be 
given to its onward course, questions must arise greatly 
involving its future prosperity, and consequently imply- 
ing a heavy responsibility on the part of those who may 
be selected as its Law Makers. Such was unquestion- 
ably the condition of Ohio at that early period. But 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 7 

this is not the place to review in detail such questions. 
It is perhaps sufficient to say here that during the whole 
period of his service in the Legislature of Ohio, Mr. 
Woodbridge participated actively in the work of build- 
ing up and strengthening its institutions, and in all its 
important Legislative transactions. In 1812 he drew 
up a Declaration and Resolutions, which passed the two 
houses of the Legislature unanimously and attracted 
great attention, endorsing, in the strongest and most em- 
phatic terms, the war measures of President Madison. 
While thus dividing his time and labor, between the 
public duties which devolved upon him, and those con- 
nected with his profession, a circumstance occurred, 
which, bringing into question the practical construction 
of a provision contained in the Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States, it may not be out of place to mention. 

Mr. Woodbridge's residence, as has been said, was at 
Marietta, where the Muskingham unites with the Ohio; 
separated from Wood County, Virginia, by a narrow 
river only, he was sometimes applied to by citizens of 
that State, for professional advice and aid. His ac- 
quaintance there being very general, it became an object 
of individual interest to him, — if he properly could, — to 
become admitted to practice in the courts of that State. 
The laws of Virginia then required, that the applicant 
for admission, should obtain a certificate from " the 
Justices of the County Court, of that county in which 
he has usually resided for the last preceding twelve 
months," touching his age, his moral character, &c. Mr. 
Woodbridge had never lived in Virginia. But the Jus- 
tices of the County Court, upon argument, were of opin- 
ion that, as the fact of a residence there, was not, by the 
terms of the law, required to be certified to; and as the 



8 THE LIFE OF 

clause in question seemed intended solely to guard 
against the improvident granting of such certificates to 
persons not sufficiently and personally known to the mem- 
bers of the court, it might, by fair rules of construction, 
be quite competent for them, under the law, to grant the 
required voucher to a person long resident in the imme- 
diate neighborhood, and with whom they had, for many 
years been personally acquainted. They therefore cheer- 
fully granted the certificate required. The legal effect 
of that certificate, was simply to authorize an examina- 
tion of the candidate by three of the highest Judicial 
Officers of the State; and, if that examination proved 
satisfactory, the further certificate of those three Judges, 
gave the applicant the right to admission, upon his 
taking the oath of office. The ordeal so far, had been 
passed, but then a new difficulty arose. The Statutes 
of Virginia had prescribed the form of the oath to be 
administered. It comprised not only the oath of office, 
properly speaking ; but a positive declaration that the 
applicant was actually a citizen of Virginia. This dec- 
laration he could not make, for it was contrary to the 
fact. But he nevertheless claimed to be sworn in; and 
that the declaration of citizenship should be omitted. 
This claim was based upon the provision of the second 
section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the 
United States, which purports to grant to " the citizens 
of each State, all privileges and immunities, of citizens 
in the several States." The question was raised in the 
Supreme Court, then holden in Wood County, and was 
considered important. The clause in the Constitution 
alluded to was not known to have received anywhere, a 
judicial or practical construction; and it appearing to 
the Judge (Smith or Wilson) to be both " novel and 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 9 

difficult," it was reserved and taken, according to the 
custom of the court, to the General Court of the Com- 
monwealth of Virginia at Richmond, for its " advice and 
discretion." The Superior Judge, who afterwards held 
the court in Wood County, was pleased to advise him, 
that a majority of the Judges of the General Court had 
fully sustained the construction for which Mr. Wood- 
bridge had contended, and the oath omitting the declara- 
tion of citizenship, was directed, upon his application, 
to he administered. This decision, however, was not 
made known to him, until about the time he left that 
part of the country, and he never afterwards had occa- 
sion to claim its benefit. 

About forty-five years after the period just alluded 
to, the citizens of Marietta celebrated in a becoming 
manner the seventieth anniversary of the settlement of 
their town ; and among those who were invited to be 
present, from abroad, was Mr. Woodbridge. He could 
not accept the invitation, but he sent a letter to the 
friends of his youth, in Marietta, in which he thus al- 
luded to his early home : — 

" This is the country of my childhood, and of my 
middle life. It was the home of my revered father, and 
of my sainted mother. It was the dwelling place of 
beloved sisters, and of estimable brothers ; one of whom 
has but recently departed from you ; whom you all 
knew and esteemed, for his life was passed among you 
in acts of benevolence and christian charity to the end. 
This was the home, too, of kind-hearted fellow-citizens, 
who first, a long time ago, took me by the hand, led me 
forward into public life, and upon whose favors I leaned 
for support, and to whose unshaken confidence I owe, in 
a great measure, what little of distinction I may have 
2 



10 THE LIFE OF 

acquired as a public man. It will not, then, be deemed 
arrogant in me, I trust, that I too should claim a common 
interest in that great event which you have assembled 
here to celebrate." And another passage from the same 
letter, published elsewhere in full, is as follows : " And 
blessed be the memory of those who first transplanted 
into the Great West, the New England system of popu- 
lar education ! That was a system sui generis. There 
was nothing like it ; and to a free people, who would 
seek to preserve their freedom through all future time, 
in its pristine purity and vigor, it was indispensible. 
What organized band of Puritans, indeed, have been 
known to migrate without the school master in their 
train ? The school lands had not yet become available ; 
but other resources were applied ; and from the first es- 
tablishment of the colony, there was no want unsupplied, 
of well conducted schools. The Block-houses at '" the 
point" were built as I have already stated, as places of 
protection, and as means of defence. One of them was 
usually occupied, on the Sabbath, as a house of prayer. 
It was not an undue desecration of it, I think, that, on 
other days, it should be used for a school. A Mr. Bald- 
win, a graduate, I believe, of one of the Eastern col- 
leges, sent out, I suppose, by the provident curators 
of the colony, as a teacher, kept school there. Under 
his encouraging tuition, (for I was one of his little pu- 
pils,) I was myself enabled to blunder through some of 
the elementary rules of grammar, and to struggle through 
with varying success, against that formidable monster 
the multiplication table. He was an amiable man, and 
much beloved by all his pupils ; and withal, at least in 
their untutored judgments, he was a man of prodigious 
learning, 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. \\ 

"And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, 
That one small head could carry all he knew! " 

Where this gentleman moved to, and what was his 
ultimate destiny, I do not know. At "the Stockade" 
higher branches of learning were taught, for a time at 
least, by Major Anselm Tupper, of the old Revolution- 
ary Army. This gentleman had the reputation of being 
a superior classical scholar, as he certainly possessed a 
refined and polished address. As the population of the 
colony expanded, and its settlements within the pur- 
chase increased in number, means of education were 
everywhere abundantly provided; and everywhere with- 
in the purchase, the badge of New England people was 
visible." 



]•_> THE LIFE OF 



CHAPTER II. 

Late in the autumn of 1814, Mr. Woodbridge was 
officially advised of his appointment by President Mad- 
ison, to be Secretary of the Territory of Michigan. 
This was a surprise to him, for he had made no applica- 
tion for that, nor for any other appointment, and had 
received no intimation that any person had applied for 
him. It has been supposed, however, that the nomina- 
tion came from his early friend Lewis Cass, at that time 
Governor of Michigan. He hesitated long before ac- 
cepting the office. The condition of his own health, and 
that of his family at length determined him. He and 
his wife needed the bracing influences of a climate, so 
salubrious as that of Detroit was reputed to be, and he 
concluded to accept the appointment; at least tempor- 
arily, until he should have visited the country, intending 
to have resigned the office should the attractions of the 
lake country not be equal to his expectations. He was 
also called upon at the same time to hold the office and 
perform the duties of Collector of Customs at Detroit ; 
and in this connection may be mentioned this interesting 
circumstance. The fleet which, under Commodore Per- 
ry in 1813, was so successful in the great Battle of Lake 
Erie was, for preservation, sunk in the Harbor of Erie ; 
and, by permission of the General Government, one of 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. i:; 

these vessels was raised, and performed Revenue service 
at Detroit, during the whole of Mr. Woodbridge's term 
as collector of that District. 

And here, for the want of a better place, is submitted 
a brief letter from Mr. Woodbridge to his wife, which 
gives an admirable idea of the condition of affairs on the 
Detroit river, a short time after his arrival in the coun- 
try :— 

Detroit, Michigan Territory, 

March hth, 1815. 
My dear J,— * * * * * * 
The town of Detroit is by no means so large as from 
my first letter to you from this place, you might have 
supposed. The proper town does not include so many 
houses by any means as Marietta. I was led to an 
error on this subject, by the circumstance that for two 
miles below, and at least as many above, there is one 
continued village, scarcely any place in that distance 
larger than from our house to our barn intervening be- 
tween the farm houses. Imagine to yourself a-single tier 
of farms fronting on the strait or river Detroit, having 
for front of from one and one-half to three square acres, 
and extending back from thirty to eighty square acres, 
few of which farms are cleared for a distance greater 
than one mile back, the houses and buildings placed 
along the river bank in front of each farm, and you will 
have some idea of the manner our farms are laid out. 
They extend in this manner very many miles from the 
mouth of Detroit river, along lake St. Clair, and up the 
river Sinclair. The houses are almost universally of one 
story — most of them have been standing from ten to 
eighty years — fashioned a little like the houses of the 



14 THE LIFE OF 

low Dutch about New York, Long Island, Bergen (in 
New Jersey,) and I suppose Albany. The inhabitants 
being mostly Catholics, you see many traces of their 
religion ; for instance, many an old moss-grown crucifix 
which on their gate posts, barns, or houses have with- 
stood the storms of a century. 

The British side of the river, except that you see 
more traces of modern improvement, greatly resembles 
this side. The wide river, the points, and the distant 
islands, look beautifully. The natural beauty of this 
country will delight you. But of the society — what 
shall I tell you ? One would think that the lives of this 
people consist in one constant succession of amusements 
— dances, rides, dinners, card parties, and all the et cet- 
era of dissipation, follow in one long train, treading each 
on the heels of the other ! 

Tell Jane, in answer to her inquiries, that Mrs. May 
is a good, religious French lady ; that she talks to me 
always in French, and I to her always in English, and 
yet that we get along without any sort of quarrelling. 
Mrs. Sibley and her little family are all well; they live 
in a snug little one-story house at the upper end of the 
town. * * * * * 

Affectionately yours, 

W. Woodbpjdge. 

The Government which prevailed at that time in 
Michigan was that prescribed in the ordinance of 1787; 
being what was called its "first grade," i. e., there was 
no elective Legislature, and the Territory had no Dele- 
gate in Congress. But, after some years, the popula- 
tion became sufficiently numerous to authorize it to pass 
into the "second grade" and consequently to have the 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 15 

benefit of a Delegate in Congress and a local elective Legis- 
lature. But according to the provisions of the ordinance, 
the expenses of the new Government would have been 
thrown upon the people. Heavy taxes would have been 
the consequence. The Territory had recently been in 
full possession of the enemy, by whom it had been left, 
despoiled of everything that could be taken away and 
destroyed, and in a condition of almost hopeless devas- 
tation. And the question being put to the people to 
decide, in 1818, or about that time, a very large major- 
ity voted against the change proposed. But the inabil- 
ity or unwillingness of the country to support a more 
free and acceptable Government, furnished unjust cause 
for withholding from it the benefits of being represen- 
ted by a Delegate in Congress; and confiding in the liberal 
policy of that body, it was hoped that a petition for the 
grant of that privilege, would be favorably received. 
An effort had indeed been made, soon after the decisive 
vote against passing into the second grade of Govern- 
ment, to accomplish that object. At a large assemblage 
of citizens in Detroit, Mr. Woodbriclge had been appoint- 
ed to correspond with members of Congress on the sub- 
ject; and when, subsequently, it became generally known 
that he had proposed, for the first time, to visit the seat 
of the General Government, he was further empowered 
by the citizens of the Territory, to solicit personally, in 
their behalf, a grant of that privilege. The condition of 
the old Land Titles of the country were also the subject 
of much solicitude; and very justly, for, notwithstand- 
ing the assurances that had been given to the Canadian 
inhabitants at the time of the surrender of the country, 
(in virtue of Jay's treaty,) and afterwards, that they 
should not be disturbed in their possessions, and that 



16 THE LIFE OF 

their lands should be confirmed to them, great numbers 
of that people were left without the power to sustain 
their claims in the courts, and subject at any time to be 
dispossessed of their homesteads, at the pleasure of the 
Government, though many of them had been occupied 
by their ancestors for a hundred years or more ! To 
these two objects, on his arrival in Washington, Mr. 
Woodbridge gratuitously and earnestly applied himself. 
The first one mentioned he succeeded in ; and an act of 
Congress was passed February 16, 1819, authorizing 
the election of a Delegate. A Bill for investigating and 
confirming the Land Titles in the Territory was also 
passed through one of the two Houses of Congress, with 
a fair prospect for it in the other, but the adjournment 
took place before it could be finally acted upon. Upon 
his return to Michigan, and when the results of his mis- 
sion became generally known, he was at once nominated, 
without any concurrence on his part, for the office of 
Delegate. The political condition and the interior police 
of Michigan, as well as the general operation of its Local 
Government, were but imperfectly comprehended in 
Congress; and the region of country then known as 
Michigan, comprehended the whole domain which was 
subsequently divided into the States of Michigan, Wis- 
consin, Minnesota, and Iowa. The multifarious concerns 
which always press upon the attention of that body, com- 
bined with the remoteness and insolated situation of 
the Territory, tended to exclude from view all these 
topics, and its various interests. The Governor and the 
Judges of the Territory, fully apprized of all these dis- 
advantages, were all desirous that Mr. Woodbridge 
should accept the tendered nomination, and having done 
so, he was elected without opposition. He reached 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. ' 17 

Washington in December, 1819, and duly took his seat 
as the first Delegate to Congress from the Territory of 
Michigan. 

It has already been intimated, that for a long period, 
during the war with Great Britain, the whole of the in- 
habited parts of the Territory were in the possession of 
the enemy. Everything was laid waste there ; desola- 
tion and famine took the places of contentment and 
plenty. The claims of its people upon the liberal jus- 
tice of the nation, growing out of that condition of 
things, and resulting from the subsequent operations of 
the war upon that frontier, were numerous, strong, and 
of considerable magnitude. They had never before 
been presented to the Government by any one whose 
duty it was to seek their enforcement. Unfortunately 
for the sufferers, the allowances made some years before 
upon claims which originated on the Niagara frontier, 
and ostensibly growing out of similiar causes, had been 
swollen to so enormous an amount, that the Adminis- 
tration had become alarmed. The vigilant jealousy of 
the nation was awakened. A sentiment of hostility to 
all such claims seemed to pervade the Capitol, and soon 
extended to all the officers of the Treasury, whose duty 
it was to investigate them. To defeat a claim indeed, — 
for losses growing out of the war, and without any 
scrupulous regard to justice either, — had come to be 
considered as evidence of patroitism, and proof of a com- 
mendable regard for the interests of the Treasury. Not- 
withstanding the unfavorable auspices under which the 
claims from Michigan were presented, the efforts of Mr. 
Woodbridge were not fruitless. His efforts in Congress 
and with the Administration were untiring to secure 
every possible good for the people of the lake peninsula. 
3 " 



18 THE LIFE OF 

Among the other objects which demanded and received 
his attention, was that of obtaining some further recog- 
nition of the old French Land Titles. From the earliest 
period of his term, this was made the subject of his con- 
tinued efforts. The previous legislation of Congress, in 
relation to these titles, was considered very imperfect. 
Mr. Woodbridge desired to substitute a more perfect 
system. But on consultation with the members, especi- 
ally those who were on the Land Committee, he was 
induced to forego his own preferences and concluded 
to present and endeavor to get through both Houses, 
the same bill which had previously passed through one 
House. The measure succeeded and w T as followed by 
most beneficial results. 

Separated, as Michigan was, from the settled portions 
of Ohio by a wide extent of country (so disastrously 
known during the war with Great Britain as the " Black 
Swamp ") and from other States, on the South West, 
by an untrodden wilderness, Michigan had continued — 
down to the period when that war brought it into notice 
— almost entirely unknown to the people of the United 
States. For many years, after the peace of 1783, it 
had remained under the Government of Great Britain, 
practically a part of Upper Canada. The social and 
commercial intercourse of its people, was with Canada 
almost exclusively. To and through that Province, all 
the artificial roads of the country were constructed ; 
and when the navigation of the lakes was closed by 
winter, no other lines of intercourse existed. Such a 
condition of things did not comport with the general 
safety, as was lamentably demonstrated at the very com- 
mencement of the war, for the entire Territory was un- 
questionably lost by it. Neither did it accord with that 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 19 

provident care and wise policy which looks to the future 
and seeks to neutralize all influences which may lead to 
commercial or political evils. After the delivery of the 
country to the United States, in 1796, (in view of Jay's 
treaty,) it was found expedient by the Government to 
pay a large portion of the annuities accruing to the In- 
dians at and near Detroit. Many of these were pay- 
able in merchandize. It too often happened that these 
payments were delayed ; and the answer given to the 
frequent complaints on account of these delays was, that 
the goods could not be brought without roads ; also, that 
no roads could be made, because the country through 
which they must pass belonged to the Indians and not 
to the United States. This reasoning the Indians could 
comprehend. It predisposed them to agree to a measure 
which President Jefferson had projected in 1806, that 
of constructing a national military road through the 
swamp. To that end he had directed a treaty to be 
holden with the tribes who owned the country; the 
parties to it met at Brownstown, in Michigan, and a 
grant was obtained of a strip of land for the sole pur- 
pose of making the road. Not long after its ratification, 
Mr. Jefferson left the Presidency, and the object and 
provisions of the treaty were suffered to rest in forget- 
fulness, until, in real earnest, the war approached. 
Then, of course, the importance of such a road forced 
itself upon the consideration of the Government. Com- 
missioners were appointed to explore the country and to 
lay out the road. But it was too late, and hostilities 
were commenced before any progress could be made. 
After the war, the tokoU of that region of country was 
obtained from the Indians, and thus the provisions of 
the treaty of Brownstown as many supposed became 



20 THE LIFE OF 

merged in the subsequent treaty. Whether such a con- 
struction were warranted or not by the terms of the two 
instruments, it seemed injurious to the general interests, 
and especially to Michigan. It was the purpose of Mr. 
Woodbridge, if possible, to revive and give full effect 
to the design of the first treaty. With that intent, he 
introduced a resolution into the House of Representa- 
tives, as Delegate, directing an inquiry to be made as to 
"what measures — if any — were necessary, in order to 
give effect to the provisions of the treaty of Browns- 
town." Upon his motion it was referred to a select 
committee of three and Mr. Woodbridge was made 
chairman, the other members hailing from Ohio. He 
at once fully explained his views to his associates on 
the committee, but though their own State was mani- 
festly as much interested as Michigan, they at first 
looked upon the proposition as wild, visionary, and im- 
practicable. The national character and great impor- 
tance of the work were indeed conceded, but the Govern- 
ment,' as they thought, had no money to spend upon such 
a work. They also deemed it idle to suppose that suf- 
ficient means to construct the road, could be obtained 
by the sale of the land which had been granted by the 
Indians for the purpose. This condition of things was 
painful and embarrassing to Mr. Woodbridge; — and the 
more so because further reflection had confirmed, rather 
than weakened his confidence in the practicability, as 
well as sound policy of the measure. In this emergency 
it happily occurred to him that the Legislature of Ohio, 
then in session, might perhaps be induced to consider 
the project, and lend to it the sanction of its favorable 
opinion. He wrote to some of his old associates in that 
body — explaining his plan, and indicating some of the 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 21 

benefits that would result from it to that State, as well 
as to the whole North West. His suggestions were 
well received, and measures were at once taken to elicit 
the views of the Legislature on the subject. Not doubt- 
ing what those views would be, his hopes of ultimate 
success were revived ; and suspending all call upon the 
attention of the House committee, he proceeded to 
collect the necessary information for a report, which, 
if the action of the Ohio Legistature should not dis- 
appoint him, it was his intention to submit for the con- 
sideration of the committee. Joseph Vance, who was 
afterwards and for many years so efficient a member of 
Congress from Ohio and Governor of the State was, at 
the time alluded to, in the General Assembly. From 
personal observation he was fully acquainted with the 
topography of that country, and with his own character- 
istic promptitude and energy, introduced and supported 
resolutions enforcing strongly the policy of the measure, 
and these were at once transmitted to the members of 
Congress from Ohio. They were filled with surprise, 
and from that period they became earnest advocates of 
the measure. But the Session was far advanced towards 
its close, and, in order to increase the chances of success, 
it was proposed that a resolution relative to the meas- 
ure, should be presented in the Senate also, so that the 
matter might progress at the same time in both Houses. 
Some diversity of opinion also existed as to the expe- 
diency of urging a money appropriation for the work, 
without reference to the proceeds of a, sale of the land ; 
and it was considered judicious, that while in one House 
the measure should be advocated upon the principle of 
applying the proceeds of the land granted — and those 
only to the construction of the work — a money appropri- 



22 THE LIFE OF 

ation should bo urged in the other. The matter was ac- 
cordingly brought forward in the Senate by Benjamin 
Ruggles, who was assisted in committee by Rufus King, 
and upon their invitation, Mr. Woodbridge was solicited 
to give them his views on the subject at issue, and their 
effect on the committee was salutary. The report pre- 
pared by Mr. Woodbridge and read to the House, was 
fully approved and ordered to be printed, but on account 
of the approaching close of the Session, final action was 
delayed. Fortunately for the project, Governor Vance 
was elected a member of the Congress which was to be 
holden during the winter of 1820-1, and to his ener- 
getic support, as well as to the expositions contained in 
the House report, was Mr. Woodbridge's successor prin- 
cipally indebted, it is believed, for the final success of 
the measure. That the report had attracted, to a con- 
siderable extent, the public attention, is sufficiently 
evinced by the fact, that at successive sessions of Con- 
gress, it had twice been printed by order of the House, 
and also by the Senate. The principles it assumed and 
the reasoning it urged, eventually won their way to the 
favor of Congress. The plan it proposed was ultimately 
adopted, and thus was constructed through the great 
Black Swamp, one of the finest roads in the Union. 

At this point we are reminded of the somewhat sin- 
gular and romantic fact that one of the first, if not the 
first lady who ever crossed the Black Swamp was Mr. 
Woodbridge's mother. This was on the occasion of her 
making the trip on horseback from Marietta to Detroit 
to visit her son. Of course she had the best escort 
that could be afforded under the circumstances, but it 
was her fortune to spend more than one night in the 
Black Swamp with no better couch than a fallen tree. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 23 

With this illustration of her rare courage and determi- 
nation (which her son inherited) we may with propriety 
associate another incident of her life. On one occasion, 
while enjoying the quiet of home at Marietta, she was 
informed that her son Dudley had gone to Blannerhas- 
set's Island, in the Ohio river, to fight a duel, with some 
young blood equally wild as himself. Her husband was 
absent at the time, but she had a horror of duelling and 
determined that something must be done to prevent the 
conflict. Calling upon two of her stalwart neighbors to 
man a canoe, she seated herself in it, and directed them 
to paddle as if for life, for the famous Island ; — they did 
so, arrived in time, and Master Dudley, instead of 
making himself a target for a fatal bullet, was com- 
pelled to embark in the canoe, and return to his home 
a wiser and perhaps a better boy. 

In the "History of Michigan," by James H. Lanman, 
the earlier services of Mr. Woodbridge, at Washington, 
are recognized and specified in the following terms : — 
"As early as the 12tla of May, 1820, a report was 
made to Congress in reference to the construction of a 
road across the Black Swamp ; and extraordinary efforts 
were also made to secure the aid of the General Govern- 
ment in advancing these works of internal improvement. 
These calls were liberally responded to on the part of 
the General Government. An appropriation was made 
for opening a road between Detroit and the Miami, and 
it was expended on that work with great advantage. 
Bills also passed Congress (through the influence of Mr. 
Woodbridge) providing for the construction of a road 
from Detroit to Chicago, and also a road from Detroit to 
Fort Gratiot, as well as the improvement of La Plais- 
ance Bay." 



24 THE LIFE OF 



CHAPTER III. 

During the same session of Congress heretofore al- 
luded to, of 1819-20, another question was started of 
very deep interest to the Territory, and which, some 
sixteen years afterwards, after involving the whole re- 
gion of the North West in the most dangerous excite- 
ment, was settled by the strong hand of power most 
disastrously for Michigan. The Surveyor-General of 
the United States had been ordered to survey and run 
the boundary line which separated Ohio from Michigan. 
This line had been established by the Act of Congress 
which first erected Michigan into a separate government; 
and in the terms of the " articles of compact" contained 
in the Ordinance of 1787, it declared the boundary to 
be "a line to be run due east from the south extreme of 
Lake Michigan." The same line had been prescribed 
as the northern boundary of Ohio, in the act which au- 
thorized its people to form a State Government. Though 
not astronomically located and marked, it had always, 
down to 1820, been fully recognized by the people and 
the public authorities, both of Ohio and Michigan, as the 
true line. But transcending the powers granted to them 
by the act of Congress, as well as in opposition to the 
explicit terms of the compact recited in the Ordinance 
of 1787, the members of the Ohio convention had de- 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 25 

clared that in a certain event, the northern boundary 
of their State should be— not the line prescribed by 
Congress — but a line to be run from the northern cape 
of Miami Bay, obliquely, to the southern bend of Lake 
Michigan. It was assumed also, that, as Congress, in 
admitting Ohio into the Union, had not expressly re- 
jected that part of the State constitution, it should be 
considered, impliedly at least, as having sanctioned it. 
Towards the close of the session, the Commissioner of 
the General Land Office, sent a report to the House, 
from the Surveyor-General, of what purported to be the 
minutes of a survey of the line in question, accompanied 
by an elaborate map. The report attracted little or no 
attention, and there was no indication of early action 
upon the subject. But, as in the annunciation of it 
Michigan was named, Mr. Woodbridge felt it his duty 
to examine the report. He saw at once that it might 
have an important bearing upon the future interests of 
the Territory. It purported to recognize a latent claim 
on the part of Ohio, which, if sustained, would take 
from Michigan a strip of country from eight to twelve 
miles broad, along the whole base of the peninsula, and 
with it the only natural harbor she had upon Lake Erie. 
Mr. Woodbridge's recollections of the early history of 
the North West were, in this exigency, of essential use 
to him, by guiding him in his researches for document- 
ary proofs. He lost no time in making those research- 
es. When they were matured, and he became satisfied 
as to the right, he brought the matter, so far as related 
to Ohio, directly before the House by resolutions. 
These, with the whole subject, were referred to the 
committee on Public Lands. That committee, as then 



26 THE LIFE OF 

organized, comprised among its members men eminently 
conspicuous for their capacity and high moral character. 
Its chairman, Richard C. Anderson. Jr., of Kentucky, 
had perhaps few superiors in the House. To much gen- 
eral intelligence and great clearness of perception, he 
united a rapidity and vigor of thought which commanded 
universal respect. Quick to see the important bearing 
of the questions involved, he deemed it proper to call 
for an exposition of the respective claims of the State 
and Territory, and invited a formal argument on each 
side before the committee. The course pursued by the 
Ohio delegation, on the occasion, was liberal and fair. 
They committed the argument and management of it, 
on their side, to one of their number — Thomas R. Ross 
— a gentleman of fine talents and a good debater. The 
other side was managed by Mr. Woodbridge. They at- 
tended at several of the sittings of the committee, and 
the latter was required to open the argument, which he 
did very fully. After some delay, Mr. Ross replied at 
great length; and, after mature deliberation, the com- 
mittee reported in favor of Michigan. Indiana and Illi- 
nois were both indirectly interested in this question, 
and although there were gentlemen on the committee 
from those States, the report was agreed to unanimous- 
ly. But, unhappily for Michigan, a few days after it 
was sent in the House adjourned, and there was no 
action during that session. The subsequent history of 
this question of title is soon told. At the opening of 
the succeeding session its prospects were promising and 
its friends were most sanguine; but Mr. Woodbridge 
had resigned his seat as a Delegate, and no final action 
seems to have been had on the measure. Thus the 
vantage ground was lost to Michigan; and time was 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 27 

given to mature, array, and bring into effective action 
against her pretensions, all the formidable influences 
which Ohio knew so well how to use. The views Mr. 
Woodbridge had exhibited before the committee, he had 
occasion, acting in a different official capacity, that of 
Secretary of the Territory, to present, in certain letters 
which he addressed to Governor Ethan Allen Brown, of 
Ohio, irf which he remonstrated in behalf of Michigan 
against the action of Ohio, and asked for the protection 
of the General Government for the Territory of Michi- 
gan. These letters, which were placed on file in the 
Department of State, were repeatedly published; and 
how far the reasoning they urged has been fairly met 
and refuted, if at all, the interested reader of this part 
of our history may hereafter, perhaps, have occasion to 
judge. Subsequently, a new aspect was sought to be 
given to the Ohio claim. Some sixteen years after, 
when it became necessary that Congress should act final- 
ly upon it, it was affirmed that some very ancient map 
of the North West, had represented the "South Bend" 
or southerly extreme of Lake Michigan, to be several 
miles north of its true position; and it was conjectured 
that the Continental Congress, which settled the terms 
of the compact recited in the Ordinance of 1787, rela- 
tive to the proposed line, must have had that ancient 
map before them as their guide, and that consequently 
they could not really have intended to include within 
the limits of Michigan, the Miami Bay, and the strip of 
country in dispute. But all this was conjecture, and it 
was also an after-thought. The title of Michigan was 
contemptuously rejected — that of Ohio was confirmed; 
and, in the view of the antiquary and the moralist, the 
fact may serve to illustrate, by another signal example, 



28 THE LIFE OF 

that Power is never at a loss for pretenses while minis- 
tering to its own aggrandisement. 

But there were other topics which engrossed the at- 
tention of Mr. Woodbridge during his services as Dele- 
gate Some of them related to the immediate wants of 
his constituents and the country generally. Among 
them was one touching the legislative code of the Ter- 
ritory, and thought deserving of the paternal regard of 
the General Government. That code, (if it could he so 
called,) was entirely without method; in general, was 
not in print; and its publication consisted for the great- 
er part, in the occasional transmission of copies in man- 
uscript, to the Judges of the Courts and other officers 
of the Territory, and to any others as in the exigency 
might demand them — for the local Government was 
without the funds necessary for their promulgation in 
print. Mr. Woodbridge called the attention of Congress 
to the subject, and that body was pleased to appropriate 
a sum of money sufficient for compiling, digesting and 
printing a sufficient number of copies, to supply fully 
the wants of the Territory for the time being. It was 
also during his term in Congress, that the project of fit- 
ting out an expedition for exploring the Indian country 
around the borders of Lake Superior and along the val- 
ley of the Upper Mississippi, was matured and deter- 
mined upon. Though the direct agency of Congress in 
this matter was not deemed necessary, yet the objects 
to be attained by it, were presented to the Executive 
branch of the Government as of great magnitude, inter- 
esting to science, and very material as regarded the de- 
fences of the North West, The Indians of those regions 
were numerous, formidable, and of a \or\ ferocious char- 
acter. The events of the late war had planted deeply 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 29 

in their minds a spirit of vengeful and bitter hostility 
against the people of the United States. Until that 
spirit should be softened and subdued by direct inter- 
course with them, and by some display of force in their 
country, the peace of that frontier, it was believed, 
could not be preserved. The country itself too, teemed 
with matters of great interest. Pere Marquette, La 
Hontan, and other French tourists and Romish mission- 
aries, had passed along the waters of the Great Lake, a 
century and a half before. In vivid colors they had 
described the mineral riches of the countries which 
they saw. But their discoveries had passed away and 
were well-nigh forgotten. But the people of the United 
States, who now possessed the region, knew nothing of 
that hidden wealth. It was time — and it concerned the 
pecuniary interest of the nation, as well as the demands 
of science, that some preliminary measures should be 
taken to bring to the public view its real character. 
Before Mr. Woodbridge left the Territory for Washing- 
ton, Governor Cass had prepared a memorial which he 
desireol Mr. Woodbridge to present to the Secretary of 
War. In that memorial, he urged in strong terms the 
expediency of the exploration he had projected, and 
earnestly invited Mr. Woodbridge to press the subject 
on the consideration of the Government. In a letter 
that the Governor addressed to the Secretary, dated 
November 18th, 1819, setting forth his plan for explor- 
ing the Upper Mississippi and Lake Superior region, he 
thus alludes to Mr. Woodbridge: — 

" Mr. Woodbridge, the Delegate from this Territory, 
at my request, takes charge of this letter; and he is so 
intimately acquainted with the subject, and every way 
so competent to enter into any explanations you may 



30 THE LIFE OF 

require, that I shall not be compelled to go as much 
into detail as, under other circumstances, might be ne- 
cessary." 

Mr. Woodbridge duly explained all that seemed am- 
biguous or of doubtful fitness, and strongly urged the 
adoption of the plan. He had frequent conferences 
with the head of the War Department — John C. Cal- 
houn. Though cautious, and at first reluctant to incur 
so great expense, he at length gave his sanction to the 
proposed exploration; and Mr. Woodbridge had the 
satisfaction of announcing to the Governor its adoption 
by the Government. The history of the tour has long 
been before the public, in the learned and interesting 
publications of the late Henry R. Schoolcraft. 

Long before the close of his winter in Washington, 
Mr. Woodbridge had learned that sickness prevailed in 
his family, and he became convinced that he ought not 
again, under like circumstances, to be so long separated 
from his home. It occurred to him also, that perhaps 
his constituents might prefer to have him at home dur- 
ing the succeeding winter, to do what he could to help 
along the local Government of the Territory, and he 
therefore resolved to resign his seat as a Delegate when 
Congress should have adjourned. A new election was 
called, and Solomon Sibley, (afterwards distinguished as 
one of the Judges of the Territory,) became his succes- 
sor. And thus, with the first session of the Fifteenth 
Congress, commenced and closed, for many years, Mr. 
Woodbridge's labors in the legislative councils of the 
nation. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 31 



CHAPTER IV. 

After Mr. Woodbridge's return to Detroit, in 1820, 
he continued in the position of Secretary of the Ter- 
ritory of Michigan, holding the office altogether for 
eight years, oftentimes, in the interim, performing the 
duties of Governor. It was during that period that 
he wrote his letters to Governor Brown; and, accord- 
ing to a rule of the time, performed the duties of Col- 
lector of Customs for the town of Detroit. Among 
the men of the time, with whom he became intimate 
while sojourning in Washington, was James Lanman, a 
Senator in Congress from Connecticut, and like him- 
self a native of the beautiful town of Norwich. After 
their separation, an interesting correspondence sprung 
up between them, which continued for many years; and 
on account of the then out-of-the-way region in which 
he lived, the letters of Mr. Woodbridge were full of in- 
formation. A few of them may be here inserted with 
propriety, and the writer of this memoir hopes he will 
be excused for premising that the "friend" alluded to 
in the first sentence of the first letter was Charles 
James Lanman, who, like Mr. Woodbridge, was a native 
of Norwich, and the father of the writer, and who, after 
graduating at Yale College had settled, in 1817, in the 
practice of law, on the River Raisin, where the depon- 



32 THE LIFE OF 

ant was himself born. The first letter in question gives 
us a good idea of the condition of Michigan as it existed 
forty-four years ago; and the passage where Mr. Wood- 
bridge relinquishes his own claims for a Judgeship in 
favor of his father-in-law, exhibits to us the unselfish- 
ness of his character : — 

Detroit, December 12, 1822. 

My Dear Sir: — My warm-hearted friend, your son, 
has shown me your letter to him of the 25th of Septem- 
ber, in which you make kind mention of me. You al- 
lude in it to a sentiment, which seems to have been the 
subject of some paragraphs in a prior letter from him to 
you — "that I was tired of my official situation here." 
In my free conversations with him (for between him 
and me, I believe, there is no reserve whatever) I have 
doubtless given him ample occasion to deduce that infer- 
ence, although abstractedly, it might seem not to have 
been duly considered. Nor can I charge Mr. Lanman 
with any indiscretion in any communication he may 
have made to you; — yet it was not anticipated that, 
especially in terms so decided, he should have commu- 
nicated the sentiment. But since such has been the 
fact, and such especially the obliging manner in which 
you have been pleased to receive it, I hope you will 
pardon that manifest egotism the explanation of it may 
Lead to. I wish to rescue myself from the reproach of 
frivolous instability, as well also as from that of the 
puerile belief that any situation in life can be exempt 
from the corrosions of care, vexation, and disappoint- 
ment. 

The truth is, I never realized anything of the glow- 
ing prospects which were holdcn out to me, and which 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 33 

induced my acceptance of a situation here; a situation I 
not only did not court but which was indeed conferred 
upon me without any previous intimation. In accepting 
it, I sacrificed solid good for benefits never attained. 
The pecuniary sacrifices incurred in removing from an 
honorable and profitable business into a country still 
weltering in blood, and organizing under the most hor- 
rible devastations of war — poor, impoverished, and 
miserable — were to me great and ruinous. It was in 
the last year of the war I came here. My average ex- 
penses for the first three years of my residence, were 
twice greater than my salary at least. In that season, the 
most unprofitable for making investments in real estate, 
I was obliged to buy land, in order to bring myself within 
the qualifications required by the Ordinance of 1787. 
Still, I hoped for better times, and that when the coun- 
try should at length have been restored to its previous 
condition of prosperity, I should commence the realiza- 
tion of the fair hopes which seduced me here ; but reali- 
zation still flies me. I yet owe a considerable of the 
purchase money for my land, and have not a house of 
my own in which I can live. 

As regards the present moral condition of the society 
here, I find no congeniality, nothing to give zest to 
social intercourse out of my own family, — except in my 
intercourse with your son, and one or two others. * 

* * Our chief Judge is a wild theorist, fitted princi- 
pally for the "extraction of sunbeams from cucumbers." 

* * * Judge Gr. is a man of respectable literary ac- 
quirements, of good taste, and good manners, but with 
a mind, lamentably inert. * * * Judge W. has a 
family and is settled among us; he is undoubtedly an 
honest man. He possesses strong native powers of 

5 



34 THE LIFE OF 

inind, altogether self-taught. On the heel of the Revo- 
lution, among the rough mountains of Vermont, he ac- 
quired his habits and prejudices, among the most 
prominent of which is his deadly hostility to that com- 
mon law which he is officially caHed upon to administer, 
— because it is of English descent. Such are the official 
representatives of national sovreignty among us. Such 
are the men with whom in various capacities I am 
obliged to act. During about eight years that I have 
been Secretary of this Territory, however, I have stead- 
ily avoided everything like collision with the Governor. 
During about two years of that period, I have officiated, 
in his absence, as by law of Congress I am required, as 
Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs; and 
while so officiating I have made it a matter of principle 
to pursue, so far as I could, his policy — to give effect to 
his views, both in Executive and Legislative concerns — 
jostling nothing out of place. Nor have I officially 
come in collision with 'any other of the public servants, 
holding it to be matter of duty, either to quit my place 
as Secretary, or to preserve, so far as I could, the har- 
monies of the singular machinery of this Colonial Gov- 
ernment. But in succeeding so far, it has not been 
without some sacrifices of moral independence, which 
have cost me something of feeling. Such are the out- 
lines of my pecuniary, social, and official life, during my 
continuance here, and such the characters of my coadju- 
tors and lords paramount. This life has been chequer- 
ed with incidents and sacrifices of various kinds, but 
conscientious. Though it has subjected me to unjust 
cabals and unwarranted aspersions, I believe it has not 
been censured by the good nor fruitless of public useful- 
ness. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 35 

A change in our social and political condition is now 
rapidly maturing. The struggling and convulsive move- 
ments of the moral elements, newly planted among us, 
already give indications of a new political era here. It ' 
is the part of prudential foresight to look to its consum- 
mation. 

When your son shall have been appointed Register or 
Receiver of a new Land office here, my office of Collec- 
tor will have ceased to possess for me much interest. 
To me individually its pecuniary product has been very 
far inferior to the vexations and perplexities incident to 
it; — its prospective value is all it has to recommend it. 
The office of Secretary of this Territory will soon cease 
to exist. I am literally tired of it. Moral dependence, 
malevolent aspersions, and to a certain extent humilia- 
tion, have always been its incidents. Yet would I not 
wish to quit them suddenly, without some alternative 
that would save me from the necessity of sacrificing all 
my property here, and quitting the country much older 
and much poorer than when I came into it. 

In relation to the establishment of new Land districts 
here, I wrote pretty fully last week to Mr. Cook of Illi- 
nois (Daniel P.) who last year had in a friendly manner 
proffered his services in the effectuating of an object so 
important to us. I have also written to Governor Brown 
(Ethan A.) now of the Senate and lately one of the Su- 
preme Judges of Ohio. I think there can be no doubt 
(unless the General Government would discard alto- 
gether the policy hitherto pursued in relation to the 
establishment of Land offices) but that at least one new 
Land district will be created, during the present session, 
within the Territory. We have you know but one in 
it; and certain it is, I think, that, comprehending the 



36 THE LIFE OF 

whole of the peninsula of Michigan — no part of the 
western country of equal extent can be pointed out 
which possesses in near the same degree so various beau- 
ties and so extraordinary excellence. Neither is there 
any in regard to which there can exist so strong motives 
of policy for throwing into it, by affording every practi- 
cable facility, a dense population. Relatively to the 
opposite country of Canada and its topography, this 
Territory is peculiarly exposed, should a state of war 
unhappily occur. Rather, indeed, than that it should 
have such a population, I would consider it wise to give 
to the actual settlers one half of the public domain. 
Fortunately, however, there does not exist a present 
necessitv for such a measure. To extend to us those 
facilities which the General Government has been accus- 
tomed to extend to other parts of the western country, 
is perhaps all that the exigency requires; especially if 
to these be superadded the making of that public road 
through the Black Swamp, for the making of which I 
have long thought the faith of the Government has been 
pledged; and this I endeavored to show in the printed 
report you may perhaps have noticed on the Browns- 
town treaty. 

I have reason to believe, from various circumstances, 
that Mr. Sibley (Solomon), though no doubt in favor of 
the creation here of a new Land district, would prefer 
that the office should be located in the Saguina country. 
The motives for such preference must be left to be 
guessed at. Doubtless the good of the Territory would 
be advanced greatly by the location there of such an 
office. With all proper deference, I think it far better 
located at Frenchtown, to be thence removed up the 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 37 

river Raisin, when such removal may be safe. As yet, 
the Saguina country is a wild wilderness, and what little 
of personal safety there may now be there, is to be at- 
tributed to be establishment of an armed force recently, 
and I believe in consequence of my official representa- 
tion, to Mr. Calhoun, of the temper of the Indians who 
inhabit the country. Last season, there was no safety 
either for property or persons from their depreciations, 
even the public surveyors were stopped by their hostile 
threats and violence. But doubtless, so long as the 
United States Garrison is kept there, the incumbents of 
a Land office would live securely. But I would deem 
it more wise and more creditable to the nation that it 
should first or at least simultaneously attempt to consol- 
idate its population. That it should first give encour- 
agement for the settlement of the country on the borders 
of Ohio — up the river Raisin, (whose general course is 
parallel with the north boundary of that State,) where 
a country as interesting I believe may be found as any 
west of the Alleghany mountains. And why is it not 
prudent to consolidate this population, as it advances? 
Why should w T e continue to be indefinitely cut off from 
the ample resources and great strength of the Ohio? 
Our true policy, I think, is to build a national road over 
the Black Swamp, and without delay to encourage by 
every possible means, the settlement of the whole coun- 
try from the Ohio line, or at least the eastern section of 
it upon the Miami to the Saguina Bay — the lakes Hu- 
ron, St. Clair and Erie, and the straits of Detroit and 
Sinclair inclusive. To which end there should be two 
new Land districts — one southerly, at the river Raisin, 
and the other northwesterly, at some central point in 



38 THE LIFE OF 

the Saguina country. With a view to a more satisfac- 
tory exposition of such a plan, I intended to have pre- 
pared for transmission to you a rough sketch of the 
country, but for want of time I must defer it. With 
regard to the reputed plan of Governor Vance of Ohio, 
to establish a Land office at the rapids of the Miami, 
and extend its district on both sides of the State bound- 
ary line, I cannot but believe it chimerical. Why dis- 
regard so important a political boundary as a State line 
— the boundary too of a Judicial district and circuit of 
the United States — for such an object? 

In adverting to the topic of the creation of a District 
Court of the United States here, as affording a situation 
which would have many charms for me, it did not oc- 
cur to me to state that Mrs. Woodbridge has possessed 
a lively hope that her father, Judge Trumbull, would 
remove here and take up his residence with us. Him, 
my dear sir, you know well — how powerful and how 
splendid his mental faculties once were, and how much 
he would have added to the dignity and the learning of 
any judicial tribunal. You too know better than I can, 
whether by age those faculties be in any degree impair- 
ed. If they be not, and he should consent to it, and 
you and the Connecticut delegation should, from 
motives of personal esteem, or State pretensions, think 
it in anywise expedient to locate him among us, in the 
judicial character I alluded to, then it would be useless 
for me to add, whatever might otherwise be my chance 
of success, I withdraw my own claims. 

Pardon me after all, my dear sir, for my wild specu- 
lations. It is an evil we are so prone to! 

I heard to-day of the good health of your son, whom 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 39 

I expect, in a few days to see, and remain, dear sir, 
with perfect esteem and respect. 

Your obedient servant, 

Wm. Woodbridge. 
Hon. James Lanman, 

Washington City. 

The next letter that has been selected for quotation 
in this place, like the preceding one, will be found to 
throw light both upon the personal history of Mr. Wood- 
bridge and the early history of affairs in the North 

West. 

Detroit, January 23a?, 1823. 

Dear Sir: — The tenor of our last Washington advi- 
ces, lead to the belief that the elements of this local 
Government will at length be reviewed and by the pres- 
ent Congress. 

There are two or three points (interesting principally 
as they regard me) to which I must beg permission to 
ask your attention in this contingency. And this the 
more particularly because, being, in the general system, 
of minor importance, they might otherwise escape obser- 
vation. They regard exclusively the relation which the 
Secretary of the Territory bears to the general appor- 
tionment of powers and duties among the administrators 
of the Colonial Government. That relation is anomal- 
ous, and from the first organization of the Government 
of the North West Territory in 1787 to the present 
time, his duties, powers, and official standing have never 
been clearly defined. The office bears some analogy to 
that of Secretary of State of a State, in this, that it is 
made by the Ordinance of 1787 the depository of the 



40 THE LIFE OF 

Legislative and Executive acts and of the archives of 
the Government. But it bears a closer analogy to that 
of Lieutenant Governor, inasmuch as the incumbent of 
the local authorities, in respect to the tenure of his ap- 
pointment, being accountable only to, and required to 
report only to the paramount Government: and partic- 
ularly also, that, by the act of 1789, passed in order to 
accommodate the Government of the Territories to the 
new constitution — all the powers and duties of Governor 
and of Superintendent of Indian Affairs are, in the ab- 
sence, death, or removal of the Governor, conferred upon 
the Secretary. No researches into the United States' 
laws will lead, I believe, to a more detailed account of 
the powers and duties of the Secretary than will be 
found in the ordinance and the act of 1789. An act 
of Congress of 1792, now obsolete, relative to the old 
North and South West Territories, did, among other 
things, purport to subject the secretary to the con- 
trol of the local Legislature; but it is presumed that 
the provision must have been inoperative so long as 
such Territory continued in the first grade of Government. 
The Governor and Judges, of right cannot originate and 
make laws, they can only adopt; and if the secretary of 
a Territory be not Secretary of State of a Territory — 
where can a law be found imposing duties upon him 
to adopt? The act in question, however, was never 
brought down or applied to this Territory. With the 
single exception of Illinois perhaps, while Mr. Edwards f 
now of the Senate, was Governor, and Mr. Pope secre- 
tary, I believe the Secretaries of the Territories have 
uniformly affirmed and sustained their official freedom 
from control by the other local authorities. The his- 
tory of this Territory, (always the victim of incessant 
cabals,) furnishes abundant evidence, in the time of 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 41 

my predecessors, of attempts made by the local author- 
ities to add oppressive burthens to the office of Secre- 
tary ; and to degrade him to the footing of a subordinate 
clerk and private secretary, but these have always been 
heretofore resisted. Indeed, why may they not as well 
reduce his salary as increase his burthens? 

As I have before had the honor to state to you I 
have never had any practical difference with the United 
States officers of this Territory; but I have had occa- 
sion, as matter of principle, in a letter I once addressed 
to the Governor and Judges to protest against an act 
of theirs purporting to add to my duties. Now, if it be 
really intended to degrade the office, and to authorize 
the Governor and Judges ad libitum, to impose whatever 
burthens upon the incumbent they may choose, I could 
desire that such power were given in terms less vague. 
But I object utterly against the policy of giving color 
to such pretense; and I will here observe that, consider- 
ing the expensiveness of riving here, and the character 
of the officer and his onerous duties, the salary, to be 
just and proportionate, should be increased. 

There is one other subject to which I beg leave to 
advert. The fixed salary of the Governor is $2,000 
per annum. He has been allowed by the War Depart- 
ment a clerk called "Secretary of the Indian Depart- 
ment," with a salary of $900, and I believe rations. 
In addition he has been allowed as Superintendent of In- 
dian Affairs, an extra sum in money and rations — in 
consequence of the very troublesome nature of this 
duty — to the amount of about $2.000 — making an ag- 
gregate of $4,000 per annum; besides occasional allow- 
ances as Commissioner in Indian treaty-making; and 
his pay as Brigadier General of the United States, 
6 



42 THE LIFE OF 

which commission, I believe, he held about one year. 
The result of the whole matter has been that, from a state 
of comparative indigence, that gentleman has arisen to a 
princely estate. Against all this I urge no manner of 
objection; nor would I, on any account, be the occasion 
of any objection stated. If Governor Cass has been 
well and liberally paid, so, beyond all doubt, he has per- 
formed valuable and important service. But it has 
happened that during this period, though I believe I 
have been sufficiently devoted to my official duties, 
I have been growing poor; that while, for the whole 
time during which I have performed the duties of Su- 
perintendent for the Governor, he has been receiving 
these extra allowances and pecuniary benefits. It is to 
be observed, furthermore, that while I have performed 
those duties, they have been rendered more arduous, 
because when the Governor has absented himself he 
has always taken his bookkeeper with him — the Secre- 
tary of the Indian Department. When, for the first 
period in my life, I was in Washington, (in the winter 
of 1818-19,) I was out of funds, and producing evi- 
dence from the State Department, of my officiating as 
Superintendent of Indian Affairs, I applied to Mr. Cal- 
houn for an allowance — not for the money awarded 
to the Superintendent, but simply for a commutation of 
a ration account. 1 found him very unwilling to act 
upon it, until he should first have seen what Governor 
Cass had charged for the same period. I urged the 
proposition on the ground that the allowance should be 
made because it was called for the nature of the servi- 
ces rendered, and from principles of justice, and that it 
should be made to the ojice and not to the man. I had 
determined never, so long as I continue an officer of 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 43 

the Government, to be brought in contact, on a pecuni- 
ary difference with its head, and I therefore ceased to 
press my claim. Since that period, Governor Cass has 
received credit for the whole amount of his own claims. 
Now, with respect to the past, I wish it to rest. But 
relative to future arrangements — should this subject be 
discussed, I would respectfully urge the expediency of 
legislative arrangement. 

I regret, dear sir, the necessity of going so much into 
detail, and I ask your forgiveness. 

With very great respect and sincere esteem, 
I remain truly yours, 

Wm. Woodbridge. 

Hon. James Lanman, 

Washington City. 

Mr. Woodbridge and the late lamented Governor Cass 
were boys together on the banks of the Ohio ; they both 
entered the wilds of Michigan at about the same period; 
and having established their residences almost within 
a stone's throw of each other on the beautiful Detroit 
river, they were, for a period of forty-five years, the 
two leading men of Michigan. They were always good 
friends, but never perhaps very intimate. This want 
of congeniality arose from the circumstance, that the 
characters and tastes of the two men were totally un- 
like. Governor Cass enjoyed robust health, and was an 
energetic politician and man of the world; Mr. Wood- 
bridge, on the other hand, possessed a somewhat frail 
constitution, was a great lover of the quiet of home, and 
never so happy as when busy among his books. They 
were also almost invariably opposed to each other in 
politics. As the former has placed his name high on 



44 THE LIFE OF 

the roll of fame, the subjoined opinions of his character, 
as expressed by his early friend, may not be without 
interest, The letter in which the opinions occur is as 
follows : — 

Detroit, March 13, 1823. 

My dear Sir: — I am not certain that I have acknowl- 
edged the receipt of your interesting letter of January 
21. If I should be found trespassing upon your pa- 
tience, by reiterating sentiments already expressed, I 
must ask your excuse for such want of consideration. 

I believe I am not peculiarly predisposed to that ugly 
disorder Dr. Rush calls tristmania; but we are all in a 
great degree creatures of circumstances; and often — 
nolens volens — discover in our path this enemy to human 
comfort. It was at such a crisis that I received that 
kind testimonial from you, the receipt of which I am 
now acknowledging; its effect I may thank you for, but 
need not comment upon. It can be said of but few 
men, I believe, that praise from honorable minds is not 
grateful to them. I indulge the hope too, that in this 
world of gloom and disappointment there are perhaps as 
few whose hearts are not (at least for the time being) 
expanded into contentment and philanthropy, by the 
elastic influences of beneficence and friendship. 

I would not conceal from you, my dear sir, that when 
I saw your letter to your son I felt some uneasiness lest 
an erroneous impression should have found place in your 
mind concerning my views and circumstances. It has 
afforded me much satisfaction to learn that my egotism 
has been pardoned. 

It has not surprised me, that Governor Cass should 
have expressed himself to you concerning me in a man- 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 45 

ner to induce the belief that he participated largely in 
my views, confidence, and hopes. It is a debt he has 
long owed me to express himself of me in friendly terms ; 
and I cannot doubt but that abstractedly he would cheer- 
fully give me every aid in the promotion of my just 
hopes. Of human character I am far less capable of 
judging at a glance than many others; — suddenly I may 
not ever seize its leading traits; but I do claim, as re- 
gards his character, some distinctive knowledge of it. 
My acquaintance with him commenced soon after he 
left Exeter Academy. He was then about seventeen 
years old, and before he was eighteen he had commenced 
the study of law with my uncle, Matthew Backus, then 
of my father's family. In the profession he was in ad- 
vance of me two or three years, he having been admit- 
ted I think in the latter part of 1803, soon after I had 
seriously commenced the same study. During his con- 
tinuance at Marietta, he was almost as familiar in my 
father's house as I was; and from that time, though we 
have not advanced exactly on parallel lines, we were al- 
ways acquainted, always on good terms. Though we 
have long ceased to be very intimate, we have never 
quarrelled. In direct violation of Lavater's rules, Gov- 
ernor Cass certainly unites a superior judgment with a 
most uncommonly retentive memory. He has an under- 
standing, powerful, quick, and comprehensive. His ac- 
quired knowledge is most widely diffuse but is rather 
ample than profound. He is ignorant on no subject — he 
is deeply penetrating perhaps on none. He has a rich 
imagination, a wonderful flow of animal spirits, and they 
are wholly subservient to his will. He possesses much 
fertility of romance, and extraordinary colloquial talents. 
But every exertion of these has its distinctive object. 



46 THE LIFE OF 

This world to him, is hut a play-house; and that drama 
with him is host, which is best performed, and most 
surely conduces to its occult object. He has originated 
and kept in operation here a system of political machin- 
ery, which few perhaps would have devised or could 
have maintained. A more consummate politician will 
rarely be found. Touching his predispositions concern- 
ing me, I might calculate, I think, upon his good offices. 
But amicitice potentum, non frigiendw!" I have been 
weighing this sentiment of Horace these ten or fifteen 
years. And what after all is that friendship worth 
which is based only upon political convenience — which 
is mere matter of calculation? I will not despise it: 
but I cannot covet it, least of all from an old comrade. 
You have expressed the sentiment that you "could 
hardly desire for me a better friend." I have felt it 
due to myself to pursue this topic with somewhat of 
pertinacity, until I have doubtless fatigued your patience. 
I have submitted to you, with all confidence and candor, 
the grounds of my own conflicting sentiments, and I now 
quit the discussion without reluctance. I am not sorry 
either that I must give such direction to this letter as 
that it will not meet your eye until after the active, 
busy, fluttering scenes of the winter shall have given 
place to the calm, the quietude, and the blandishments 
of home. I yet claim the privilege to superadd that, 
with the most cordial respect and esteem, 

I remain, dear sir, yours, 

Wm. Woodbridge. 
Hon. James Lanman, 

Senator' in Congress, 

(now at Norwich, Connecticut.) 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 47 



CHAPTER V. 

About the time that the foregoing letters were writ- 
ten Mr. Woodbridge was appointed one of a Board of 
Commissioners for adjusting the private Land claims in 
the Territory of Michigan. The duties of that position 
he discharged with rare fidelity; — and as he was already 
much occupied with the duties of Secretary of the Ter- 
ritory and of Collector of the Customs, it would seem 
that he could not have had much time for other employ- 
ment. But the truth was, he continued in the practice 
of his profession; was a constant attendant at the bar, 
and was engaged in some cases which required as 
thorough research as those which come before the courts 
at the present day. 

Although he loved his profession, for which he was 
admirably fitted, he was compelled to consider it subor- 
dinate. His law library even at that time, was truly 
splendid and, as an old friend has remarked, he "valued 
it as the apple of his eye." About that period he was 
engaged as counsel for Lord Selkirk in a question with 
the Hudson's Bay Company, as to the settlement upon 
the Bed River of the North, and was also the legal ad- 
viser of the North West Fur Company, projected and 
conducted by the late John Jacob Astor. 

In 1825, he was called upon, as one of the Board of 



48 THE LIFE OF 

Commissioners, to decide a contest between Messrs. 
Wing, Biddle and Richard, as to which of the three was 
elected Delegate to Congress. The Territorial law, un- 
der which the Commissioners acted, was peculiar. It 
required the Board — upon a full view of the whole 
matter — to determine who was duly and legally elected; 
it imposed upon them, as they thought, the duty to look 
into and judge of the legality of the proceedings, in 
each elective district. They did so; and their decision 
occasioned great bitterness of feeling. It was also con- 
tinued in the House of Representatives. A majority 
of the House committee on Elections, not distinguishing 
between a "Delegate" and a member under the Consti- 
tution, were of opinion that the Board had no authority 
to look beyond what purported to be the returns; nor, 
to judge of the legality of the proceedings, notwithstand- 
ing the particular phraseology of the law; and yet the 
same committee decided that the result arrived at by 
the Board of Commissioners was the correct one. In 
the House there was great diversity of opinion as to 
their right to judge, but the final report of the commit- 
tee was sustained and Mr. Wing held his seat. On this 
complicated question Mr. Woodbridge had prepared an 
elaborate opinion, which was printed in pamphlet form, 
and according to its tenor was the whole subject settled 
by the House of Representatives. 

In the beginning of 1828, the Hon. James Witherell, 
for many years the presiding Judge of the Supreme 
Court of the Territory, resigned that responsible office, 

' and Mr. Woodbridge was appointed as his successor by 
President John Quincy Adams. This honor was con- 

• ferred upon him at the solicitation of the Governor, the 
Judges and the Delegate of the Territory, sustained by 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 49 

a formal request from the Bar and the body of Grand 
Jurors in Detroit, all of whom knew him intimately and 
appreciated his merits. To him, personally, the ap- 
pointment was not a desirable one; but he was induced 
to accept it, to use his own words, principally because 
it might enable him, with less sacrifice, to remove with 
his family, where they all desired to go, on a farm 
which he had procured several years before, a short 
distance from Detroit down the river, in the township 
of Spring Wells. This tract had a beautiful front upon 
the river, and extended back several miles; and he had 
added greatly to its convenience and value by the build- 
ings and fences he had caused to be constructed upon 
it, and by the gardens, fruit-yards, and extensive orch- 
ards he had planted. It was not without much reluct- 
ance however, that he consented to accept the Judge- 
ship. The salary he knew was inadequate; and in 
itself did not afford him a support during the whole 
period that he held the office. Considering the manner 
in which it was conferred upon him, he felt that he could 
not with propriety decline the proffer, and he immedi- 
ately entered upon his new duties in February, 1828. 
He was made the presiding Judge of the court, and his 
associates on the Bench were Henry Chipman and Solo- 
mon Sibley, both of whom were men with whom it was 
a source of gratification to be associated; and it has 
been said that the Bar of Michigan, at that particular 
period, was not surpassed in ability by that of any State 
in the Union. 

It was while he continued on the Bench that a case 

occurred, which, for the time being, was the subject of 

considerable notoriety; not so much from its inherent 

importance, as from the efforts that were made to sub- 

7 



50 THE LIFE OF 

limate it into a most alarming attack upon the "freedom 
of the Press." A prosecution for contempt was com- 
menced against the editor of a newspaper for publishing 
an article calculated to produce a prejudice in the pub- 
lic mind relative to a cause then pending, and to be tried 
by Jury — thus tending to defeat the ends of justice. 
Not feeling disposed to purge his contempt, the court 
pronounced judgment against him. In addition to the 
evil temper which seemed to impel him in publishing 
the offensive article, his great ambition appeared to be 
to gain the honor of martyrdom. Like other ephemera, 
this trial had its day and passed into forge tfulness. Mr. 
Woodbridge continued on the Bench for four years, and 
during that period was constantly employed either as 
presiding Judge of the Supreme Court or on the Circuit. 
There were no good roads in the Territory then, travel- 
ling was consequently always fatiguing, often dangerous; 
his duties were exceedingly laborious; and a conscious- 
ness of discharging them faithfully constituted his most 
vital requital. In February, 1832, the term of his ap- 
pointment by Act of Congress expired. General Jack- 
son was then President, and appointed a successor to his 
office. His removal was, it is believed, one of the first 
fruits of the "spoils' system," which had, a short time 
before, been engrafted into the policy of the new Admin- 
istration. This act, on the part of President Jackson, 
created deep feeling in Michigan, in which the Bar uni- 
versally participated. 

The circumstances attending the transition of Michi- 
gan from a Colonial to a Stale Government led to all such 
disorders and absurdities as might well be imagined. 
In that crisis, he was not permitted to be a mere "look- 
er on." He was elected a member of the convention, 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 51 

held in 1835, to form a State constitution. He was the 
only Whig elected in the district in which he resided, 
and one of only four in the convention. In that posi- 
tion he felt himself obliged to take ground against the 
extention to aliens of the right of suffrage. In this 
course he was only partially successful. He also op- 
posed the measure of forcing the State Government into 
operation without waiting for the consent of Congress. 

On the twenty-sixth of January, 1837, Michigan was 
admitted into the Union as a State, and among those 
who were elected to the State Senate was Mr. Wood- 
bridge. He took an active part in the proceedings; but 
it does not appear that during his service in that capac- 
ity, there were any measures of great importance brought 
up for consideration. 

In 1839, Mr. Woodbridge was elected Governor of 
the State of Michigan and entered upon his duties as 
such in January, 1840. He acted with promptitude, 
and while he felt that important obligations had been 
imposed upon him, he took occasion, in his Inaugural 
Message delivered on the seventh of January, to recog- 
nize in a manly and high Christian-like manner his need 
of guidance by the Providence of God. While appeal- 
ing to the members of the Legislature for their hearty 
co-operation, he gave expression, among others, to the 
subjoined just and noble sentiment: "Let us suppress 
all such local partialities and party animosities as may 
seem unfriendly to the common good, and each in our 
prescribed sphere, and invoking the blessings of Provi- 
dence upon our labors, with singleness of heart, seek to 
advance the moral and political prosperity of our com- 
mon country." By principles like these was he always 
guided in the discharge of all his public as well as 



52 THE LIFE OF 

private duties, and hence the salutary influence which 
he exerted upon all those associated with him in public 
affairs. 

By way of illustrating his industry and promptitude, 
it may be stated that on the very next day after taking 
the oath as Governor he submitted to the Legislature an 
elaborate message on the affairs of Michigan. In that 
State Paper, he reiterated the wrongs which had been 
committed against the State by Congress in regard to 
her admission into the Union, and in doing so, only 
echoed the strong feelings which pervaded the entire 
population. The financial condition of the State at that 
time was at a low ebb, and this fact he improved, by 
elucidating the importance of strict economy. He 
took strong ground against a project that was upper- 
most in mens' minds, which was, to construct, sim- 
ultaneously, at the expense of the State alone, five 
different and parallel lines of inland communication 
by railroads and canals; he thought the scheme splen- 
did and captivating in its design, but disproportioned 
to the wants of the people, and altogether beyond 
their means to accomplish. He thought that such en- 
terprises should be left to be carried out by private en- 
terprize or the General Government. The unfortunate 
condition of the currency question, as it then existed, 
also commanded his attention, and he recommended a 
thorough examination of all the banks that had caused 
the trouble, in part, by suspending specie payments. 

In March, 1840, Mr. Woodbridge submitted a special 
message to the Legislature on the distribution of the 
proceeds of the Public Lands. The immediate cause of 
this, was a series of resolutions forwarded to Congress 
by the State of Vermont, instructing the Delegation 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 53 

from that State to "oppose any measure calculated to 
promote the eventual surrender of those lands to the 
States in which they are situated." He considered this 
an ominous movement against all the Western States, 
in view of what had already occurred, and he took 
strong ground against it and thought it his duty to lay 
a detailed history of the whole question before the peo- 
ple of Michigan. His views were universally applauded 
throughout the State, but all such arguments, when 
they came before Congress, were like "damming the 
waters of the Nile with bulrushes," for during the very 
next year the Atlantic States had it all their own way 
on this as well as on all other questions of national in- 
terest. One brief passage may be here quoted which 
gives us a glimpse into the heart and patriotism of Mr. 
Woodbridge: — "Nothing can separate the affections of 
the new States from the old but a deep sense of injus- 
tice; continued, persevering injustice! Michigan has 
suffered wrong; wrong has been done her on her south- 
ern border, and on her northern; while in all her coun- 
ties her enterprise is cramped, her energies are para- 
lyzed, and her resources are locked up in the public do- 
main. But she is not yet driven to the wall. She 
loves the Union, and will adhere to it; she knows the 
intelligence of its people, and has everything to hope 
from its justice; she respects the firmness of Congress, 
and trusts that no such disposition of the Public Lands 
will be sanctioned by that body as may prejudice the 
just rights of Michigan." 



54 THE LIFE OF 



CHAPTER VI. 

As already intimated, Mr. Woodbridge was always a 
staunch Whig in politics, and it was by that party that 
he was chosen Governor. In 1840, according to the 
records of the. day, the Whigs swept everything before 
them in the State, and held a very considerable majori- 
ty in the Legislature. On this Legislature it devolved 
to elect a Senator in Congress. The party was much 
divided among candidates, and a contest was waged 
among the friends of each, almost as bitter as that waged 
the year before between the two political parties. At 
length, after much caucusing and excitement, the Hon. 
J. Wright Gordon, a young man of ability and high 
character, who had been Lieutenant-Governor on the 
ticket with Mr. Woodbridge as Governor, was nominated 
as the Whig candidate. The night before the joint meet- 
ing of the Legislature was to be held for the election of 
Senator, while Mr. Gordon was enjoying a grand supper 
with his friends, a combination of disaffected Whigs and 
the Democratic minority was made, by which it was 
agreed that they would support Mr. Woodbridge. The 
next morning the joint meeting was held, and Mr. Gor- 
don, as Lieutenant-Governor presided; the first name 
called was that of a noted Democrat, and when he was 
heard to repeat the name of "William Woodbridge," the 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 55 

Whigs were astounded, and their candidate was de- 
feated. The whole scene was one of intense interest, 
and will long be remembered by the politicians of Mich- 
igan. 

Mr. Woodbridge took his seat in the United States 
Senate, on the fourth of March, 1841. and from the 
start entered with activity into its proceedings. He was 
made chairman of the committee on the Library of Con- 
gress, and was appointed a member of the several stand- 
ing committees, on Agriculture, Claims, Commerce, Man- 
ufactures, and Public Lands. The reports submitted by 
him were numerous and invariably commanded attention; 
and while he made it a point to protect and advance the 
interests of his own State, he was not unmindful of the 
fact that the whole country had a right to count upon 
his support of measures of general importance. To 
command the attention of the Senate in the good days 
now alluded to, was something of an honor, for it will 
be remembered that among the men who directed the 
wheels of Government at that period, were such giants 
as Clay, Silas Wright, Woodbury, Benton, Crittenden, 
Rives, Mangum, Berrien, S. S. Phelps, Lewis, Benjamin; 
Tappan, and Daniel Webster. Among the subjects dis- 
cussed by Mr. Woodbridge at considerable length, in 
the Senate, were those of Land Distribution, the right of 
a State to instruct Senators, and the Internal Improve- 
ments of Michigan. 

It was during Mr. Woodbridge's last year but one in 
the Senate that Mr. Webster was returned to that body, 
after his service in the Cabinet of President Tyler; and 
it was while the Ex-Secretary of State was delivering 
his famous speech in Defence of the Treaty of Washing- 
ton, that the Senator from Michigan was called out on 



56 THE LIFE OF 

the carpet in a manner that was creditable to all the 
parties concerned. Mr. Webster had come to the dis- 
cussion of the article in the treaty for the extradition 
of offenders, when he remarked as follows: — "As soon 
as that provision was agreed to, the disturbances ceased 
on the one side and on the other. They were heard of 
no more. In the formation of this clause of the treaty, 
I had the advantage of consultation with a venerable 
friend near me, (Mr. Woodbridge) one of the members 
from Michigan. He pressed me not to forgo the oppor- 
tunity of introducing some such provision. He exam- 
ined it, and I will ask him if he knows any other cause 
for the instantaneous suppression of these border diffi- 
culties than this treaty provision?" 

Mr. Woodbridge rose, and spoke in reply, as follows : 
"Mr. President, I may not disregard the allusion 
which the gentleman has done me the honor to make to 
me, in reference to the inconsiderable part which I 
deemed it my duty to take in the matter in question. 
A brief statement of some facts which occurred, and a 
glance simply at the condition of that border country 
from which I come, will be all that the occasion seems 
to demand. 

" That part of Canada with which the people of Mich- 
igan are brought more immediately in contact, extends 
from the head of Lake Erie to Point Edwards, at the 
lower extremity of Lake Huron, a distance of about 
one hundred miles. Along this intermediate distance, 
the straits of Detroit and of St. Clair furnish every im- 
aginable facility for the escape of fugitives. For their 
entire length, the shores of those straits, on either side, 
exhibit lines of dense and continuous settlements. 
Their shores are lined and their smooth surface covered 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 57 

with boats and vessels of all dimensions and descriptions, 
from the bark canoe to the steamer of a thousand tons. 
If the perpetrator of crime can reach a bark canoe or a 
light skiff, and detach himself from the shore, he may 
in a few minutes defy pursuit, for he will be within a 
foreign jurisdiction. In such a state of things no society 
can be safe unless there be some power to reclaim fugi- 
tives from justice. While your Territorial Government 
existed there, and its executive administration under the 
control of this National Government w T as in the hands 
of my honorable colleague, (General Cass,) a conven- 
tional arrangement, informal undoubtedly in its charac- 
ter, was entered into by him with the authorities of Can- 
ada, sustained by local legislation on both sides, by 
which these evils were greatly lessened. When the 
present State Government took the place of the Terri- 
torial Government, this arrangement of necessity ceased; 
and then the evils alluded to were greatly aggravated, 
and became eminently dangerous. Shortly before the 
first session of Congress at which I attended after the 
inauguration of General Harrison, a very aggravated 
case of crime occurred, and its perpetrators as usual es- 
caped into Canada. It was made the subject of an of- 
ficial communication to the State Legislature. And 
soon after my arrival here, I deemed it to be my duty 
to lay the matter before the Secretary of State, with 
a view to the adoption of some appropriate convention 
with Great Britain. 

" The honorable Senator, then Secretary of State, was 
pleased to receive the suggestion favorably; but sug- 
gested to me the expediency of obtaining, if practicable, 
the sense of the Senate on the subject. Accordingly, I 
afterwards introduced a resolution here having that ob- 



58 THE LIFE OF 

ject in view, and it was referred to the consideration of 
the committee on Foreign Relations, of which an hon- 
orable Senator from Virginia, (Mr. Rives,) not now a 
member of the Senate, was chairman. 

"Mr. Rives expressed himself very decidedly in 
favor of the proposition. But negotiations having been 
be°-un, or being about to commence, with Lord Ashbur- 
ton, it was not deemed expedient, I believe, that it 
should then be made matter of discussion in the Senate. 
I had not ceased to feel very earnest solicitude on the 
subject; and, as the negotiation approached its termi- 
nation, Mr. Webster did me the honor to send to me the 
project of that article of the treaty which relates to the 
subject. He desired me to consider it and to exhibit 
it, confidentially perhaps, to such Senators as came from 
border States, for their consideration, and for such mod- 
ification of its terms and scope as might be deemed 
expedient. This I did. The form and scope of the 
article met, I believe, the approbation of all to whom I 
showed it. Nor was any modification suggested, ex- 
cept, perhaps, one very immaterial one, by an hon- 
orable Senator from New York. Of all this I ad- 
vised Mr. Webster, and the project became afterwards 
an article of the treaty, with but little if any variation. 
I believe I can throw no more light on the subject, 
sir. But the honorable Senator, having intimated to 
me that, in his discussion of the subject, he might perhaps 
have occasion to refer to the part I took in the matter, 
I have provided myself with the copy of the message 
to the Legislature of Michigan, of which I had in the 
beginning made use, and which, in order to show the 
extent of the evil referred to, and the necessity which 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 59 

existed for some treaty stipulation on the subject, I ask 
the Secretary to read. 

The extract having been read, Mr. Woodbridge then 
proceeded : — " I have only to add my entire and unqual- 
ified conviction that no act of the legislative or treaty- 
making power, that I have ever known, has been more 
successful in its operation than this article of the treaty ; 
nor could any provision have been attended by more 
happy consequences to the peace and safety of society 
in that remote frontier." 

The Journal of the Senate shows plainly that during 
Mr. Woodbridge's term of six years, he was a most at- 
tentive and industrious member. What he accomplished 
and what he attempted in his position as a legislator, 
need not to be recapitulated. His numerous reports 
from various committees, and his published speeches, 
form a part of the records of the Government, and will 
ever be the silent witnesses of his usefulness as a pub- 
lic man. The manner in which Mr. Webster compli- 
mented him has already been noticed. Mr. Calhoun 
spoke of one of his reports on the Public Lands as " able, 
ingenious and original;" and Mr. Clay, on more occa- 
sions than one, mentioned his efforts in the Senate in 
highly flattering terms. He retired from the Senate in 
1847, and then it was that in real earnest his official 
life seemed to be at an end ! 



60 THE LIFE OF 



CHAPTER VII. 

To Mr. Woodbridge, the transition from the Senate 
Chamber and the political atmosphere of Washington to 
the quiet of his home in Detroit was most gratifying. 
Though as deeply attached to his profession as of old, 
he had not the will actively to resume his labors at the 
Bar ; but was content, as the shadows of his life were 
lengthening, to busy himself chiefly with his domestic 
duties and the pleasures of his Library and of Horticul- 
ture. So far as he was himself concerned, he did not 
cast a thought upon the world of politics ; and the pre- 
monitions of the great contest which placed General 
Taylor in the Presidential chair, only fell upon his ear 
to make him wonder at what was coming. In the mean 
time, however, his friends both in the West and the 
East were discussing the propriety of nominating him 
for the office of Vice President on the ticket with Gen- 
eral Taylor. As early as July, 1847. the Detroit Ad- 
vertiser brought his name forward as its candidate for 
the Vice Presidency, and argued that because of his 
long, arduous, and faithful services to the State and the 
whole country, he deserved to be thus rewarded. This 
spontaneous nomination was echoed in the East, and 
by way of exhibiting the feeling that prevailed among 
his friends, the subjoined paragraph from the organ of 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 61 

the Native American party in Philadelphia is submit- 
ted:— 

"We propose (for Vice President) that old pioneer 
of the North Western States, William Woodbridge of 
Michigan, Ex-Governor and Ex-United States Senator 
of that State. Mr. Woodbridge was elected to the 
United States Senate by the united votes of Whigs and 
Democrats, irrespective of party. 

"The people's independent ticket as proposed in 
Michigan, and in fact in the whole North West, is Zach- 
ary Taylor for President, and William Woodbridge for 
Vice President. With Woodbridge upon the ticket, the 
people of the North West would make a clean sweep for 
old Rough and Ready, Cass or no Cass. In presenting 
the name of William Woodbridge for the Vice Presi- 
dency, we express an opinion in favor of his talents, 
integrity, statesmanship and well known popularity — 
and expressing further the conviction that Governor 
Woodbridge will be apt to be nominated in the People's 
Rough and Ready Independent National Convention, 
whenever and wherever held, and shall cheerfully abide 
by the choice of the Convention, should it be Woodbridge 
or Winthrop, or any other Rough and Ready Indepen- 
dent people's man. Should Cass be nominated for the 
Presidency, Woodbridge is just the man to 'head him' 
in the North West." 

The papers of his party, in the North West particu- 
larly, were filled with editorials, contributions, and re- 
ports of meetings in his support for the nomination, but 
the limits of this volume will not allow of their being 
more fully noticed. It is enough to say that they were 
enthusiastic and highly complimentary. 

As all men know. Millard Fillmore was nominated, 



62 THE LIFE OF 

and so the advocacy of Mr. Woodbridge ended only in 
a compliment. 

The retired and quiet manner of life into which Mr. 
Woodbridge settled, after his return from Washington, 
was found to be one of absolute necessity on account of 
his health; — he had never been a man of robust phys- 
ique, but constant and untiring application for many 
years to his private and public duties, had now assault- 
ed his nervous system. But he continued to read and 
study without ceasing, for life to him was almost a bur- 
then without a perpetual supply of food for his intellect, 
and he was occasionally induced to address his fellow- 
citizens on topics of general interest. Two of these ad- 
dresses, one delivered before The Nciv England Society 
of Michigan, on the 22d December, 1847, and the other 
before The Detroit Young Mens Society, in April, 1848, 
have been selected for re-publication, and will be found 
at the close of this volume. They display a knowledge 
of men and things, a refinement of feeling, and a cul- 
ture of mind which reflect the highest credit upon his 
character as a man and a scholar. 

In one of the addresses alluded to, is related an inci- 
dent which, as it illustrates Mr. Woodbridge's natural 
love of fun and at the same time gives us an idea of the 
simplicity of the early French population of Michigan, 
is here reproduced. He was speaking to his audience 
(tn the importance of knowledge as well as virtue in 
carrying on a Government, and then proceeded as fol- 
lows: — 

"When, many years ago, the Walk-in-the-Water first 
made its appearance at our wharves, it produced, as you 
may well suppose, quite a sensation, especially among 
those who had never seen or heard of a steamboat be- 



WILLIAM WOODRRIDGE. 63 

fore. The advent of so extraordinary a monster was 
soon bruited about. Among the multitudes who gath- 
ered from far and near to look at it, there was a native 
Canadian, a little above middle age. He was an amia- 
ble, an intelligent, and a highly respected citizen. But 
he had never heard of a steamboat before. Being ad- 
vised of its arrival and wonderful performance, he had 
set out on the instant, fearing it would leave the city 
before he could see it; and travelling some thirty miles 
or more, principally in the night-time, he reached here 
about daylight. More bold than the rest, and early as 
it was, he yentured on board. He was politely received, 
remained a long time on board, and was shown every- 
thing. But he could speak no English. Verbal explan- 
ations, therefore, were of no avail. 

"Very early in the same morning, and long before my 
ordinary time of rising, I was startled by a violent and 
continued knocking at my door. Dressing myself very 
hastily, I went to see what horrible thing had happened. 
It was my old and polite acquaintance, Mons. Tremble, 
living somewhere about the mouth of Huron, now ' Clin- 
ton' river. Scarcely allowing himself time for that 
courteous salutation which Frenchmen (God bless them!) 
never forget ; and in a condition of undisguised agitation, 
he burst into an exclamation that ' the world was com- 
ing to an end.' I thought he spoke distinctly; I thought 
I heard him clearly; but I could not comprehend him! 
'Plait il, Monsieur?' I said to him; and he repeated 
his affirmation — ' Voila la fin du monde,' he said, 'qui 
sapproche; et Men tot tout sera detruitf He was not 
drunk, I thought; he did not appear like a crazy man. 
I could not believe that / was either the one or the 
other; and feeling that it was my turn to be astonished, 



64 THE LIFE OF 

I again asked him what he said? what he meant? A 
third time he repeated his assertion, but in conclusion 
he went on to remark, that — 'Now you and I see vessels 
driven with violence by fire through the water. Soon 
they will be hurled through the air also by fire. You 
and I may probably both live to see these things; and 
then all things will melt with fervent heat, and the 
world will be burnt up! The Priests told him so — the 
Holy Bible says it!' The mystery was solved, he had 
seen the steamboat." 

Appended to the address already quoted is a note 
touching the origin of the famous poem entitled "Mc- 
Fingall," which may, with propriety be reproduced in 
this place, as the author thereof was Mr. Woodbridge's 
father-in-law, and died under his roof in 1831; anything 
that he thought proper to communicate should be re- 
ceived as a fragment of interesting literary history. 
After mentioning the fact with others alluded to in 
in the address, that John Trumbull, was at one time a 
law student of John Adams, Mr. Woodbridge concludes 
as follows: — 

"As illustrative of the vigilance and devotedness to 
the cause of those who constituted the Boston Associa- 
tion, it may be interesting to relate an incident relative 
to the origin and publication of a burlesque poem, 
written by Mr. Trumbull, and which, in its day, obtained 
no small degree of celebrity. The year 1775 had 
commenced under the most fearful and portentious 
auspices. It had already become apparent, that "uncon- 
ditional submission" or war, under circumstances of the 
most appalling disparity, were the only alternatives. 
Firmness of purpose and stern resolve, had hitherto 
marked the proceedings of public bodies; and the din 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 65 

of active preparation for the conflict resounded through 
the land. But the British troops had occupied Boston 
in great force. The leaders of the popular party there 
had dispersed. Several of the members of the associa- 
tion were attending the General Congress, at Philadel- 
phia, as delegates. Others had found refuge elsewhere. 
The war had indeed actually commenced. Gloom 
and dismay had penetrated into domestic circles ; and 
there was great danger, lest the country should shrink 
from the unequal contest. Under these circumstances, 
and while Mr. Trumbull, in his native State, was pur- 
suing his professional labors as successfully as the dis- 
turbed condition of the country would permit, he received 
through a confidential agent, a communication from Col- 
onel David Humphries, purporting to have been written 
by the direction of that same association of patriots of 
whom he also was a member. By this communication 
Mr. Trumbull was authoritatively admonished that the 
cause of freedom was in danger; that, appalled by the 
vast power and the angry tone of Great Britain, the 
country was sinking into despondency; that something 
must be attempted, and that quickly, to rouse its spirit 
and to excite and elevate its latent energies! The let- 
ter concluded with a peremtory order, that he should 
forthwith prepare something to dispel the melancholy 
that overspread the patriot cause; that he must write 
something to 'set the people laughing!' 

"Following this mandatory direction, Mr. Trumbull 
immediately commenced his Hudibrastic Epic, 'McFin- 
gal ; ' and having finished the two or three of the first 
cantos, the manuscript was secretly sent to Philadelphia, 
and there anonymously published, and soon spread over 
the colonies. * No invoice of goods,' (using the em- 
9 



66 THE LIFE OF 

phatic words of Judge Trumbull to the writer of this 
note,) ' was ever more truly made out and sent to order, 
than were the parts thus published of 'McFingal,' and 
being thus disposed of, he had no intention of complet- 
ing the work or prosecuting it any further. The effort 
had subserved the purpose for which it was undertaken. 
Its playful humor and caustic satire, had done the work 
of embattled soldiers. Pale melancholy had been chased 
from the land, and laughter-loving mirth soon made way 
for the return of that confiding and cheerful courage, 
which never afterwards forsook the country. It was 
not until stimulated by another letter from Colonel Hum- 
phreys, that the author of 'McFingal' consented to re- 
sume the work, when he finished it as it now appears." 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 67 



CHAPTER VIII. 

From the year 1847 to 1861, the even tenor of Mr. 
Woodbridge's life was interrupted by three events which 
called forth all his Christian fortitude, viz: the transfer 
of his beautiful farm, by arbitrary power, into city lots, 
and the death of his wife and one of his daughters. 

In 1857, the Legislature of Michigan passed an "Act 
to enlarge the corporate limits of the city of Detroit," 
the effect of which was to subject Mr. Woodbridge's 
farm to the orders, stringent regulations, and ordinances 
of the corporate authorities of that city. From the day 
of its inception, he looked upon this movement as a di- 
rect interference with his rights; as unjust, oppressive, 
and ruinous to his interests and those of his neighbors 
similarly situated ; and he took the thankless labor upon 
himself to combat and prevent the natural consequences 
of the special legislation alluded to. Letters, memorials, 
and arguments of great length and ability were prepared 
by him; but the lawyer who had been so successful for 
nearly half a century in defending the rights of others, 
was doomed to be unsuccessful in pleading his own cause, 
and that the most annoying one of his whole life. It 
was undoubtedly to his credit that as a man, in this con- 
test he thought more of the comforts of his family, of 
old associations, and of his rural enjoyments, than he 



68 THE LIFE OF 

did of suddenly accumulating a fortune, and hence the 
blame which may occasionally have been cast upon 
him by the worshippers of mammon. To give an an- 
alysis of his various arguments, or to reprint those papers 
in full would not comport with the design of this volume ; 
but by way of giving an insight into his mind on the 
exciting theme, a few disconnected paragraphs will be 
submitted. 

The key-note of all that he thought was to be found 
undoubtedly in this assertion: "American citizens are 
not accustomed to remain long quiet under the galling 
chains of oppression." 

In view of the declaration which the authorities had 
alleged, that the cutting up of his farm and the destruc- 
tion of his old home would be to his advantage, he indig- 
nantly replies as follows: "Who has a better right to 
judge, whether the work in question will benefit him or his 
property, than the proprietor himself? What has taken 
from him that natural and indispensable right of judg- 
ing for himself in such a matter? Has he, unhappily, 
fallen a victim to some mental imbecility, that he is in- 
capable of judging what is good for himself? Let a 
commission in chancery be sued out against him, then, 
and let gnardians be appointed to judge for him! But 
give him, or his appointed guardian, a right to be 
heard; 'a day in court,' before, without trial, and with- 
out jury, his property is rudely wrested from him. It 
is now almost one half of a century since the complain- 
ant bought the place he lives upon; he bought it as a 
farm, he has resided upon it as a farm. It was his pur- 
pose, as long as he should live, to preserve it and live 
upon it as a farm. Was this a legal, a rightful purpose? 
And, considering that the substantial wealth of the State 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 69 

consists in its agriculture, was it not a meritorious pur- 
pose, and one he might justly claim to be protected in? 
* * The measure was deeply regretted, and operated 
as a great personal injury; for while the 'highway,' as 
such, was of no earthly use to the complainant; it broke 
through his garden, destroyed multitudes of grafted fruit 
trees, caused the entire destruction of one large barn, 
and rendered it necessary to remove another. But, 
what was of far greater importance, it destroyed the 
continuity of the farm, by disconnecting, still more, the 
different portions of it, already dissected by other and 
more useful roads. And besides the expense imposed of 
building and maintaining adequate fences and gates on 
each side of it, it cuts off the proprietor from the con- 
venient care and supervision of his stock; from the 
proper protection of his orchards, and of all his crops; 
and, by increased facilities it furnishes to secret and 
midnight trespassers, it exposes his fields, fences, and 
woodland to numberless depredations, which it becomes 
impossible adequately to guard against." 

Hear him again, as he descants upon the despotism 
to which he felt that he had been subjected: — 

"Can anything be more despotic? Can anything be 
more offensive to every principle, and every feature of 
free Government? The ingenuity of tyrants has often 
been exerted, in devising the most effective contrivance 
for extorting money from an oppressed people, but no 
plan has ever been thought of, it is believed, bearing on 
its face features of more unqualified despotism than this. 
Nor can anything in its similitude be met with, in any 
country that claims to be civilized, except it be in the 
shape of those military contributions which in time of 
war the Commander-in-Chief may levy upon the threat- 



70 THE LIFE OF 

ened or conquered country of the enemy: — Of these, the 
chivalry of Virginia, it is believed, witnessed a slight 
specimen, when Admiral Coekburne was in the Chesa- 
peake, during the late British war. It has since been 
more fully illustrated in Italy, upon the hapless descend- 
ants of the once powerful commonwealth of Rome, by 
the famous House of Hapsburg! But now — and here — 
and among Anglo-Saxons — can such things be, and not 
excite our special wonder!" 

Of course, in their general scope his arguments were 
founded in the principles of law, and to those not im- 
mediately interested would be rather dull reading; but 
he occasionally steps aside to discourse like the man of 
letters, and then even the casual reader becomes inter- 
ested. One of these episodes, now before the writer, 
is so admirable, that he cannot refrain from giving it in 
full. After mentioning the fact that the passion for cre- 
ating city lots would eventually destroy all the farms in 
the vicinity of Detroit, he thus appeals to history: — 

"But there is perhaps £ a precedent on file:' Themis- 
tocles was a gallant soldier, a successful general, and a 
man of rare genius; he was a man, too, of great tact 
and consummate cunning, but he was not over scrupu- 
lous in the choice of the means he used to accomplish 
his purposes; he was of that class of politicians who act 
upon the principle, that the end sanctifies the means. 
His great purpose was to secure the supremacy of others. 
'On a certain day then he declared, in a full assembly 
of the people, that he had a very important design to 
propose; but that he could not communicate it to the 
people, because its success required it should be carried 
on with the greatest sccresy; he therefore desired that 
they would appoint a person to whom he might explain 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 71 

himself upon the matter in question. Aristides was 
unanimously pitched upon by the whole assembly, who 
referred themselves entirely to his opinion of the affair. 
Themistocles, therefore, having taken him aside, told him 
that the design he conceived was to burn the fleet be- 
longing to the rest of the Grecian States, which then 
lay in a neighboring port, and that by this means Athens 
would certainly become mistress of Greece ! Aristides 
hereupon returned to the assembly and only declared to 
them that nothing could be more advantageous to the 
commonwealth than the project of Themistocles, but 
that at the same time nothing in the Avorld could be 
more unjust. All the people unanimously ordained that 
Themistocles should entirely desist from his project.' 
And is it possible that the Christian people of Michigan 
must go to pagan Greece for lessons of morality and 
justice — for an illustration of what is due to common 
honesty and fair dealing?" 

But the powers of the State and of the city were suc- 
cessful, and Mr. Woodbridge w T as compelled to witness 
the gradual wasting away of his dear old home of 
Springwdls. 

Before the difficulties connected with his property 
were finally settled, Mr. Woodbridge sustained the 
greatest misfortune of his life, in the death of his be- 
loved wife. Neither of them had really enjoyed good 
health for several years preceding the sad event, and 
she died on the nineteenth of February, 1860. For the 
gratification of her children and other relatives, Mr. 
Woodbridge prepared a memoir of his departed wife, 
from which we gather the subjoined particulars : — She 
was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on the twenty-third 
of April, 1786, and was consequently in the seventy- 



72 THE LIFE OF 

fourth year of her age. She was the daughter of John 
Trumbull, the distinguished Judge and author of "Mc- 
"Fingal," was highly educated at Litchfield and at home, 
and inherited a large share of the genius of her father. 
In her youth she was remarkable for her personal beau- 
ty, and during her maturity and old age always main- 
tained that refined and intellectual appearance, and those 
highly agreeable manners which artists always delight 
to depict, and of which, as they were part of her nature, 
she ever seemed entirely unconscious. 

The simple story of her life, from her marriage to her 
death, was one of love and devotion around the hearth- 
stone of home. With her, the business of life was 
"to soothe the infirmities and supply the wants of her 
beloved parents; to alleviate the cares and contribute 
to the comfort of her husband; to cultivate the minds 
and to improve the hearts of her children; these con- 
stituted the great objects of her solicitude, her most 
coveted employments, the broad basis of her earthly hap- 
piness." Her religious sentiments had been early fixed, 
under the guidance of her parents; confirmed by the 
contemplations of later years; and brought more vividly 
into force, perhaps, by the death of children and by the 
sorrows she had experienced. In July, 1855, her hus- 
band became seriously ill, and on account of her untiring 
devotion to him, she herself became greatly enfeebled 
in health; and when they had both rallied to some ex- 
tent, it was found that they must, without delay, seek 
some warmer climate in which to pass the coming win- 
ter. Following this admonition, to use the pathetic 
words of Mr. Woodbridge himself, "these feebled trav- 
ellers claused themselves to be taken on board the steam- 
er Arrow, bound for Sandusky." This was in Decern- 



WILLIAM WOODBEIDGE. 73 

ber, and they were accompanied by a little grandchild 
and their youngest son. From Sandusky they went by 
rail to Cincinnati, thence to Nashville by steamboat, 
from Nashville to Savannah by rail again and, finally, 
by steamer to Florida. In that State they spent the 
Winter and Spring months ; returned by way of Wash- 
ington and Philadelphia, and on the first of June, 1856, 
reached their home in Detroit. The stimulating effects 
of travel soon wore away and it was concluded that the 
long journey in search of health had been nearly in vain. 
And it was while the twain were thus declining towards 
the grave that their troubles respecting their farm, with 
the authorities of Detroit, occurred, and in the memoir 
of his wife, Mr. Woodbridge alludes to those troubles 
in the following touching words : — 

"This indifference of life,* (of which he had been 
speaking,) "was perhaps increased by a change that had 
occurred in the condition of her long accustomed home; 
a change that indicated the necessity of its early aband- 
onment! When, more than thirty years before, the 
family had been established on this farm, she had fondly 
hoped that ' living honestly, hurting nobody, and rendering 
to every one his due' they might be permitted, undis- 
turbed and peacefully, to occupy it as their own. That 
she especially, and her husband, might pass the re- 
mainder of their days upon it. It was not so ordained. 
To ' let well enough alone ' was no longer a maxim to 
be followed; a passion for what is called ' progress' took 
its place. A restless impatience existed for extending 
greatly the corporate limits of the municipality; and 
before the period of her severe illness, in 1855, earnest 
efforts had been made to effect that purpose. These 
were for the time defeated, but afterwards, by a sudden 
10 



74 THE LIFE OF 

movement, against remonstrance, the purpose was ef- 
fected, and the despotic powers of the corporation were 
extended over his favorite domicile. The numberless 
annoyances to which its proprietor and occupants con- 
sequently became subject, made it no longer a desirable 
residence ; the oppressive taxation to which it was sub- 
jected was rapidly rendering it valueless. To sell it 
seemed impossible, to leave it was fast becoming a ne- 
cessity; and a total uncertainty as to their future 
movements, was the disturbing result. Such consider- 
ations, as well as the uncertainties in other respects of 
the fate which in this world of sorrow and of suffering 
awaited those she loved, for a time, occasioned her great 
pain. She frequently expressed her commiseration and 
her sympathy for the sorrowing children she should 
leave." 

But death came, and, to those who were left behind, 
the sunshine of Springwells was departed forever. She 
went to sleep in the arms of her Redeemer. For her, 
therefore, there was no room for regret, and all that her 
children had to do, of whom she left two sons and one 
daughter, was to pattern after those excellencies which 
so much adorned her long and useful and beneficent 
life! 

As Mrs. Woodbridge was the daughter of a poet, we 
might, if this were the proper place, submit such speci- 
mens of her poetic powers as would show that she in- 
herited a portion of her father's genius. 

One circumstance connected with the history of this 
excellent woman is too interesting and peculiar to be 
omitted in this place. She was a direct descendant from 
the Kings of England, and here is the record of thirty 
generations with which she was directly associated, 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 75 

though the subject was one that she never mentioned, 
excepting in the most modest and becoming manner. 

1st Generation. — William the Conqueror married 
Matilda, daughter of Baldwin, 7th Count of Flanders, 
descended through Judith, wife of Baldwin the forester 
of Arden, created the first Count of Flanders, from the 
Emperor Charlemagne, and descended from Alfred the 
Great through his daughter, Alfuther, who married 
Baldwin, the 2d Count of Flanders. 

2d Gen. — Henry I, their youngest son, married Ma- 
tilda of Scotland, niece of Edgar Atheling, who de- 
scended from Alfred the Great. 

3d Gen. — Matilda, their daughter (widow of Henry 
V of Germany) married Geoffrey Plantagenet, Earl of 
Anjou. 

4th Gen. — Henry II, their eldest son, married Elea- 
nor, daughter of William, Duke of Acquehain. 

5th Gen. — John XVI of England, their youngest 
son, married Isabel Talifer, daughter of Agnus Talifer, 
Earl of Angouleme. 

6th Gen. — Henry III, their eldest son, married Elea- 
nor, daughter of Raymond, Earl of Provence. 

7th Gen. — Edward I, their oldest son, married Elea- 
nor, daughter of King Ferdinand III of Castile. 

8th Gen. — Joan Plantagenet, their 3d daughter, 
married Gilbert DeClare, the 3d Earl of Gloucester. 

9th Gen.— Margaret DeClare, their 3d daughter, (wid- 
ow of Pierce DeGaresbon, Earl of Cornwall,) married 
Hugh DeAudley, Earl of Gloucester, or descendant of 
William Longispee, Earl of Salisbury, who was a son 
of the "Fair Rosamond" ClifFord and Henry II: 

10th Gen.— Margaret DeAudley, their only child, 



76 THE LIFE OF 

married Ralph Stafford, who was created Earl of Staf- 
ford. 

11th Gen. — Hugh Stafford, their eldest son, who be- 
came the 2d Earl of Stafford, married Phillipa Beau- 
champ, daughter of Thomas Beauchamp, the 14th Earl 
of Warrick, descended from Grudeed, daughter of Wil- 
liam the Conqueror, who married William DeWarren, 
the 1st Earl of Surry. 

12th Gen. — Margaret Stafford, their daughter, mar- 
ried Ralph DeNeville, who was the 1st Earl of West- 
moreland. 

13th Gen. — Phillipa Neville, their 3d daughter, mar- 
ried Thomas Dacre, the 6th Lord Dacre of Gillesland. 

14th Gen. — Thomas Dacre, their oldest son, married 
Elizabeth Bowes, and died in his father's lifetime. 

15th Gen. — Joan Dacre, their only child, married Sir 
Richard Fienes, to whom she carried the Barony of Da- 
cre upon the death of her grandfather. 

16th Gen. — Sir Thomas Fienes, their son, married 
Alice FitzHugh, daughter and co-heir of Henry Lord 
FitzHugh, and died in the lifetime of his father. 

17th Gen. — Thomas Fienes, their son, married Annie 
Bouchier, and upon the death of his grandfather, was 
the 8th Lord Dacre. 

18th Gen. — Catherine Fienes, their daughter, married 
Richard Loudenoys of Briade, in Sussex. 

19th Gen. — Mary Loudenoys, their daughter, mar- 
ried Thomas Harlahenden, son of John Harlahenden of 
Warhorse in Kent. 

20th Gen. — Roger Harlahenden, their 3d son, married 
Elizabeth Houduss, and becomes the owner of the park 
and mansion of Earlscoln, in Essex. 

21st Gen. — Richard Harlahenden, their 2d son, mar- 
ried Margaret llobart. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 77 

22d Gen. — Mabel Harlahenden, one of their daugh- 
ters, born the twenty-seventh of September, 1614, at 
Earlscoln, came to Cambridge in 1635 with her brother 
Roger. She married Gov. John Haynes, as his second 
wife, and they settled at Hartford, Connecticut. 

23d Gen. — Ruth Haynes, their eldest daughter, mar- 
ried Samuel Wyllis of Hartford, son of Gov. George 
Wyllis. 

24th Gen. — Mehitable Wyllis, one of their daughters, 
married Rev. Daniel Russell, son of the Hon. Richard 
Russell of Charlestown, Mass. 

25th Gen. — Mabel Russell, their daughter, married 
Rev. John Hubbard, minister of Jamaica, L. I., son of 
John Hubbard and Annie Leverett, and grandson of 
Gov. John Leverett, and of the Rev. William Hubbard, 
of Ipswich, the historian. 

26th Gen. — Col. John Hubbard of New Haven, their 
oldest son, born about 1702, married and settled at New 
Haven, and died twenty-ninth of October, 1773. 

27th Gen.— D. Leverett Hubbard, one of his sons, 
married Sarah Whitethad for his first wife. 

28th Gen. — Sarah Hubbard, their 2d daughter, mar- 
ried Judge John Trumbull of Hartford. 

29th Gen. — Juliana Trumbull, their daughter, mar- 
ried Gov. William Woodbridge of Detroit. 

30th Gen. — Juliana Trumbull Woodbridge, their 
daughter, married the Hon. Henry T. Backus. 

On the sixth of April, only a few weeks after the 
death of his wife, Mr. Woodbridge was called upon to 
mourn over the death of his daughter, Mrs. Lucy M. 
Henderson. This was another blow from the hand of 
Providence which he did not anticipate, but those who 



78 THE LIFE OF 

knew the noble-hearted and sincere Christian, need not 
be told that he bore his affliction with entire submission 
to the Divine will. Long continued ill health, the loss 
of property, and the sundering of the most sacred of 
human ties, might well have caused him to compare his 
fate with that of Job, and it would not have been 
strange to hear him exclaim, "mine eye also is dim by 
reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow. 
* * I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will 
ascribe righteousness to my Maker." In concluding an 
obituary notice, which he prepared of his departed 
child, he thus expresses his feelings in regard to his 
loss and his interest in his surviving grandchildren. 

" This paper is prepared by one, who but recently 
before the event here described, had been rendered 
desolate, by a great calamity! By one who, in his deep 
affliction, thought he could never again feel a new sor- 
row ! It is prepared by a mourning parent, in remem- 
brance of an affectionate daughter, whom he dearly 
loved: in remembrance of one, who, in all the private 
relations of life, sought to perform her whole duty! 
Who, as a daughter, was dutiful and kind; as a wife, 
was faithful and true hearted; and as a mother, was all 
that maternal solicitude could exact, or maternal love 
desire ! By the inscrutable but wise providence of God, 
she has been thus taken from her young, her beautiful, 
her now motherless children, and has gone to her ' final 
rest!' They will now no longer be protected by her 
watchful and unceasing care ; nor guided by her mater- 
nal and provident counsel! Her chair is now empty, 
her accustomed place is now vacant. They will hear 
her voice on earth no more ! 

"But it is consolatory to reflect, that He, who holds 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 79 

the world in his hand, and who suffers not even a spar- 
row to fall without his special permission, is infinitely 
good as well as infinitely powerful, and that the Re- 
deemer of fallen man loves ' little children' like these; 
and 'takes them up in His arms; and puts His hand 
upon them, and blesses them !' 

" Oh ! may it accord with His infinite wisdom to screen 
them from all evil ! and to do more for them, and better 
for them, than their departed mother could do, if she 
were with them! 

" How far that lamented mother, as a member of the 
church of God, upon earth, performed all her religious 
duties; how far she conformed herself, with scrupulous 
exactitude, to the injunctions of that Christianity which 
she professed; it belongs to God, not to imperfect and 
sinful man, to judge: But it remains for those who 
mourn her loss, to hope, as in all humility and rever- 
ence they do, that when the final trump shall sound, 
and the judgment of God shall be pronounced upon the 
assembled multitudes, she may be found worthy the 
merciful regard of her Redeemer, and be placed upon 
the right hand of the Throne of God! — Until that sol- 
emn period shall arrive, calm be her rest : 

" Sweet as the slumbers of a saint forgiven, 
Mild, as opening beams of promised heaven." 



80 THE LIFE OF 



CHAPTER IX. 

Having spent the long period of fifty-four years in 
the almost daily companionship of his beloved wife, it 
was not strange that Mr. Woodbridge's heart should have 
been saddened by the death of his wife and daughter, 
and that his sorrow should have affected his health. 
On Friday, the eighteenth of October, 1861, while at 
his home in Detroit, he had a slight chill, and complained 
of indisposition, but the circumstance did not give him 
or his friends any serious apprehension as to the result. 
On the following Saturday, he was somewhat worse, 
and the chilly sensations that he felt were attributed to 
the wet weather. He continued in this condition, with 
no alarming symptoms of disease, and in the full pos- 
session of all his faculties until Sunday noon, the 20th, 
when he quietly breathed his last, without pain, and al- 
most without warning to the children who were watch- 
ing by his bedside. There was no other apparent cause 
for his death than old age. And thus, like a shock of 
corn fully ripe, in his eighty-first year, he passed away. 
As he had lived the life of a true Christian, those who 
were left behind to mourn over their loss found precious 
consolation in the belief that he had fallen to sleep in 
the arms of his Saviour. 

On the announcement of this event the United States 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 81 

District Court, then in session, the Bar of Detroit, the 
Grand Jury, and other public bodies, immediately adop- 
ted resolutions in testimony of this public bereavement. 
The funeral services were held in the Fort Street Con- 
gregational Church ; were attended by a very large con- 
course of citizens ; and the remains were deposited in 
the Elwood Cemetery. Three clergymen officiated on 
the occasion, viz :— Rev. A. Eldridge, Rev. N. M. Wells, 
and the pastor of the church, the Rev. Dr. H. D. Kitch- 
ell, who delivered the subjoined appropriate and elo- 
quent remarks: — 

Ecclesiastics, viii, 8. — There is no man that hath power over the Spirit 
to retain the Spirit ; neither hath he power in the day of death : and there 
is no discharge in that war. 

A few hours since, we bore forth from this place the 
remains of one who, but a few days since, stood among 
us in all the strength and vigor of his youth. The 
bloom of early manhood was on him. He fell at the 
threshold, just girded for the race ; and all that noble 
promise, and all those glorious possibilities are carried 
over to the life beyond. 

We gather now to bear from among us one who had 
more than filled the full measure of human life. That 
possible term of four-score years, so seldom reached by 
any, had already been attained. He lingered among us, 
one of the few whose childhood and youth lay back in 
another century. Events that are historic to us he saw 
and took part in. We have the sense of completeness 
here. The ripe sheaf is gathered to the garner. Enough 
of toil, enough of honors; a long and noble life was 
rounded to the close. Sadly — for such can never leave 
us without a pang — sadly, but with a sense of fitness, 
we lay him to his rest. Why should we hold him longer 
11 



82 THE LIFE OF 

from the new youth of his immortality? His loved 
ones had many of them long gone before his work was 
done; and though, by God's favor, his days were pro- 
longed to four-score years, yet was their strength, labor, 
and sorrow. With so much to solace our grief, with so 
little to lament, and so much of completeness in life and 
worth, let us to-day sweetly consent to God's will. 

I shall not attempt here to rehearse the story of that 
life which is now ended. It has already been told, and 
will often be again. What work God gave him to do, and 
what fitness for that work ; how large a place he made for 
him in his providence, and how well he filled it — all this 
is well known, and needs no repetition here. Yet, far be- 
yond all that can be seen and told, this was a man who 
silently touched and moulded more than we are told. 
Deep through the tangled web of our national and State 
history runs an unobtrusive thread of his influence, to 
which we owe more than we can know. His touch 
swayed our destiny far beyond all that we can recog- 
nize. Lay all your garlands on his bier, ye who know 
his youth and early worth; repeat the story of his ser- 
vice to God, and man, and his country; the tribute of 
the Bar and the Senate are due to him; lay all your 
honors on his tomb; let the old colony and the early 
State of Michigan do homage to him who passes away 
from the living to-day; and yet there remains an untold 
history of his worth and his works, a sum of good which 
forms an inheritance for our city, and State, and country, 
far beyond all that will be uttered in his praise. At 
many a crisis it is given to such a man to do more than 
can be told of him. 

It is more suitable that I should speak of him in 
another aspect of his character and life, more hidden, 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 83 

and yet touching deepest all his worth and work. For 
more than twelve years past it has been my privilege, 
as a pastor, to know this soul that has passed from us, 
to commune with him in his trials, in his weakness and 
many griefs. I testify to you, all who speak of his 
worth and do honor to his work, that the root of all this 
ran deeper than you can tell. This man loved and 
feared God, and ever stayed his soul on the Most High. 
It was this that underlay his patriotism. What he did 
was done in all this, as one who feared God. And in 
much trial of weakness and bereavement he rested 
with the serenity of a chastened and philosophic spirit 
on the hidden sources of Christian strength. One by 
one he laid away from him the loved ones of his earlier 
days — all those who were most precious to the heart — 
outliving all that was dearest and most near — yet ever 
strong to do this by the upholding of a Christian faith 
that rested on the blood of atonement. He stayed his 
soul on God and had peace with him through our Lord 
Jesus Christ. And in the strength of this trust he en- 
dured to the end, and met death with the serene com- 
posure of the Christian. 

But the lesson of our text has special emphasis to- 
day. "There is no discharge in this war." Death has 
the whole broad field of humanity for his own, and soon 
or late he reaps it all. Here to-day he has commission 
to gather from among us a young man in the excellence 
of his strength and an old man in the ripeness of digni- 
ty and the fullness of days. "There is no man that 
hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit in the 
day of death." 

But, thanks be to God, though there be no discharge 
in this war, through Christ Jesus there is a victory in 



84 THE LIFE OF 

it. We may triumph over death by faith in Him who 
gave Himself for us, and who, dying, abolished death 
and brought life and immortality to light. And this 
victory we claim to-day. He is not dead but gone for- 
ward upon the life beyond. And long since he trusted 
that, by the renewing of Divine grace, he had hidden 
his life with Christ in God. And this is the victory 
which God gives to such: 

First — That by faith in an Almighty and sympathiz- 
ing Saviour, the soul of His child shall in this life be 
stayed on God, and have peace. And when the days 
of darkness come, which are many; when sorrow and 
trial assail him; when one by one his loved ones fall 
around him, and when at last he, too, comes to walk 
through the dark passage of death, leaning on God, the 
Christian feels no ill. 

Second — There is victory to the believer in the de- 
liverance which Christ secured to him from the penalty 
and power of sin. Penitent and pardoned, being justi- 
fied by faith, he has not only peace now, but assurance 
of a redeemed and ennobled life beyond the grave. 
The sting of death is sin; but propitiating blood has 
washed that sin away. And now God's believing child 
can look forward with joyful confidence to a saved im- 
mortality, a glorious and eternal life with God. 

Third — And yet another point of victory is made 
sure to us by Faith : nothing of us dies that we could 
wish to bear with us into the life beyond, not a faculty 
perishes, not one noble power of the spirit is quenched. 
Death cannot extinguish these refined and sanctified 
powers. They are set forward upon the large and bet- 
ter life beyond, to be there cleared of all obstruction, 
enlarged, enfranchised, and henceforth employed on 



WILLIAM WOODBKIDGE. * 85 

nobler work than here. Small victory is that, when 
death does not emancipate the soul and give it to go 
forth on the enlargement of a better life and a nobler 
service above. 

Such trust we have to-day. And, therefore, we lift 
up our hearts amid the sorrow of this parting with a 
joyful assurance that a victory has been given here 
through our Lord Jesus Christ. We will comfort our 
hearts with this trust. 

As Mr. Woodbridge was pre-eminently a lawyer, it 
would seem to be quite proper that we should recall 
some of the opinions respecting his character, which 
were uttered by his associates at the Bar meeting im- 
mediately after his death. In an address delivered by 
the Hon. Ross Wilkins, that gentleman remarked as 
follows: "As an eminent jurist and constitutional law- 
yer, Mr. Woodbridge led the way in giving reputation 
and just renown to the Bar of Detroit. His generation 
of compeers, almost all, have passed before him to the 
spirit world, and another and another has arisen in our 
midst to continue and emulate his example of research, 
and legal skill, and learning. Dignified in retirement 
as he was cheerful and happy in social life, his name 
will be remembered with respect by the descendants of 
his neighbors, and the profession which he honored in 
his life." Thomas Romeyn, Esq., in his address ex- 
pressed his opinions in these terms : " The oldest and 
most distinguished member of the Detroit Bar has passed 
away. Up to the last day of his life, his mind was as 
bright, his will as strong, his sensibilities as keen as 
ever. His death was without pain or visible approach ; 
he was fully ripe and ready to be gathered. Like one 



86 THE LIFE OF 

of the autumnal leaves that now cling to the trees, he 
was ready to fall, and did fall before the gathering 
breeze. Probably no other member of this Bar has 
seen as much of him as I have during the last two years ; 
my respect for him as a perfectly just and honorable 
man : honest in his convictions, firm and frank in giving 
expression to them, and resolute in the assertion and 
support of what he believed to be right, has increased at 
every interview. He was, beyond any other person I 
ever knew, 'justum et tenacem propositi? and I know I will 
be pardoned for saying that, in his late suits with the 
city, he was not influenced by his own pecuniary inter- 
ests, but by a stern resolution to maintain what he be- 
lieved to be sound constitutional principles. His pro- 
fessional and public careers are a part of our history." 
The Hon. George E. Hand, in his remarks before the 
meeting, said that "Mr. Woodbridge was a gentlemen 
of the old school, and a person of great social and con- 
versational powers. He could sit for hours at a time 
and discuss a subject with the utmost vivacity. He 
was a zealous student, and was accustomed to read the 
legal reports as they came from the press, from begin- 
ning to end, and was perhaps the most thorough student 
of law ever in Michigan. He was very fond of social 
life, of social meetings, and was always present at meet- 
ings of the Bar, where his esprit du corps particularly 
displayed itself." Other prominent members of the De- 
troit Bar, who threw their chaplets upon his grave, were 
the Hon. Robert McClelland; Hon. Henry Chipman, H. 
C. Knight, Esq., Levi Bishop, Esq., and C. I. Walker, 
Esq., all of whom spoke from a long personal acquaint- 
ance with the deceased, and in the most complimentary 
terms. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 87 

The resolutions which were formally adopted at the 
meeting here alluded to are to this effect: 

Resolved, That in the death of the Hon. William 
Woodbridge the Bar of this city acknowledge the loss 
of one who was justly entitled to the first place, not 
only from his age and service, but from his great talent 
and attainments. While Michigan was a Territory he 
was her Secretary and acting Governor, her Congress- 
ional Representative and Presiding Judge. After she 
became a State, he was elected by her people Governor 
and by her Legislature as a Senator of the United 
States. He held other and subordinate situations and 
public trusts. In all he was distinguished for cour- 
tesy, integrity, fidelity, learning, industry, and great 
ability. As a lawyer, he was learned, industrious, and 
faithful to his clients, but always in subordination to his 
convictions of what was required by law and justice; 
strong in his dislikes and frank in the expression of 
them, they were always founded in his own sincere 
views of what was equitable and proper. He was em- 
inently a man of principle and honor, of fidelity and 
candor, and whose position and sentiments could always 
be known by friends and opponents. Among the last 
of those who stand as the representatives of the early 
days of Michigan, although he has gone from us in the 
fullness of years and of honors, we deplore his death 
and respect his memory as that of an honest man, a 
courteous gentleman, a learned and eloquent lawyer, 
and a faithful and honored public servant. 

Resolved, That we will meet at the Bar Library on 
Wednesday at 2 o'clock, and as a body attend his funer- 
al, wearing the usual badge of mourning. 



38 THE LIFE OF 

Resolved, That the President of this meeting be re- 
quested to present copies of these resolutions to each 
of the several Courts now in session, with a request 
that the same be entered on their records. 

Resolved, That the Secretary cause certified copies 
thereof to be presented to the family of Governor Wood- 
bridge, and that we request the city papers to publish 
copies of the same. 

By way of representing the voice of the Press in re- 
gard to the death of Mr. Woodbridge, we submit the 
subjoined paragraph, taken from an article which ap- 
peared in the Detroit Daily Advertiser : — 

"Though Governor Woodbridge had wholly with- 
drawn from public life since his Senatorial term expired, 
and indeed, had to a large extent excluded himself from 
public observation, he was not indifferent to the pros- 
perity of our city, and had extended liberal aid to sev- 
eral public objects. And he has taken a very deep in- 
terest in the progress of the present struggle between 
the Government and the Southern conspirators against 
it, anxiously watching every movement of our army, 
and every act of our rulers. Conservative as he was in 
his views, he warmly approved the policy of Fremont's 
proclamation, and maintained that freedom to slaves 
should follow in the march of our troops. He was a 
man of many very marked traits of character, and many 
estimable qualities, both of head and heart. Up to 
almost the very hour of his death he seemed to retain 
all the faculties of his naturally strong and vigorous 
mind and to converse almost as clearly, and judge as 
correctly, as when in the prime of manhood. It is a 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 89 

remarkable fact, too, that though he had passed four 
score years, his eye-sight remained undimmed, never 
having been required to use glasses. 

"In his death our city has lost a useful and esteemed 
citizen, the State an old, well-tried, and faithful servant, 
and his family a kind friend and wise counsellor. He 
died as full of honors as of years, leaving a pure and 
unblemished reputation, and the record of a well-spent 
life, as an inheritance to his family and to society; for, 
strong as were his feelings, and inflexible his character, 
he was a true, pure minded man, and a good citizen. 
What better legacy could they desire?" 



12 



90 THE LIFE OF 



CHAPTER X. 

It has not been deemed advisable to enhance the 
size of the present volume by inserting to any great ex- 
tent the correspondence of Mr. Woodbridge with his 
family and friends ; although it will be readily imagined 
that a man of his culture, must have written numerous 
letters of rare interest during a period of sixty years. 
A separate volume of such correspondence would cer- 
tainly be highly valued and warmly welcomed in future 
years. In the meantime, however, it has occurred to 
the editor that he might with propriety fill a single 
chapter of this volume with a few extracts from letters 
addressed to himself, by the distinguished man who 
was the friend of his boyhood and youth as well as the 
loving counsellor and friend of his manhood. By doing 
this, the reader may obtain a few additional glimpses 
into the character of Mr. Woodbridge's mind, and proof 
will thereby be afforded as to the authenticity of the 
records herein published. The passages which it is pro- 
posed to quote must speak for themselves, without any 
comments, and any allusions touching the history of the 
editor must be passed over as of no special importance 
to the leading ideas submitted. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 91 

Washington, March 11, 1845. 

It would give me great pleasure to advocate before 
the Senate your appointment as Postmaster of Monroe, 
or as applicant for any other office, the duties of which 
you could equally well perforin, if your nomination for 
such office were before the Senate. But out of the 
Senate, I could have no possible influence in any such 
matter. Governor Cass, I expect, will exclusively dic- 
tate as to all such appointments in Michigan. His 
party associations are with those of Mr. Polk — mine are 
not. I do not expect, out of the Senate Chamber, the 
slightest influence whatever with Mr. Polk, nor with his 
Ministers of State. If you desire to persevere in such 
a course of policy, no mode of proceeding could promise 
you so much as that of obtaining the influence of Gover- 
nor Cass, if you can, for I have no doubt, but that if 
he would, he could obtain any such appointment for 
you. 

I am very sorry you should have become, discouraged 
in your former and most laudable project of obtaining 
a competency, by your own individual efforts and sys- 
tematic industry. He who is dependent upon office for 
his support in our country, in my opinion, depends upon 
an employment of all others the most pitiably servile. 
He soon loses his independence of mind. He gradually 
unfits himself for any other employment, and trembles 
at every change of the wind lest his bread and butter 
should be taken from him. And if he be honest, he 
almost invariably lives a life of deprivation and poverty. 
It is not often that I recommend the reading of novels 
to people younger than myself; but there is one, Charles, 
which I think you would read with pleasure, and I 
know with profit to your head and heart, and that is 



92 THE LIFE OF 

Miss Edgeworth's novel called "Patronage." I shall 
be happy at all times to hear of your prosperity, and 
remain very truly your friend. 



Springfield, June 20, 1845. 
I have received and read with much pleasure your 
new Monroe paper. Persevere, I pray you, in what 
you have undertaken. The paper is creditable to the 
State; and if you do not suffer your zeal to abate, nor 
your industry to tire, I have no doubt but that in the 
end, it will have been a profitable employment to your- 
self. Present 'pecuniary profit, you will excuse me for 
saying, is of far less importance to you than the mental 
improvement it will superinduce, and the habit it will 
enable you to acquire of strengthening and applying at 
pleasure and to useful purposes your intellectual facul- 
ties. Character, too — happily for our country — is of 
more value to an aspiring young man than money. 
****** 

The subject of our Lake commerce is becoming every 
day of more importance to this whole region, and the 
policy of continuing our harbor improvements is be- 
coming more and more vitally important. How far we 
may be able to conquer the fierce opposition to this 
policy which our slave-holding politicians have already 
evinced to it, and especially that of Mr. Polk, is I sup- 
pose doubtful. But it is our duty, one and all of us of 
the Lake country, to persevere in it. The relinquish- 
ment of that policy by Mr. Van Buren, was the price, 
as perhaps you know, which was paid to Mr. Calhoun 
for his sudden association with the Van Buren party. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 93 

And when the South, with Calhoun, went over to him, 
the policy of continuing our harbor works was con- 
sidered as given up and prostrated forever. 

From the time that I first went to the Senate, it be- 
came a paramount object with me to seek, so far as I 
could, to reinstate that policy. My labors to that end 
were incessant, "in season and out of season;" and I 
have the great consolation to believe that my labors 
were not utterly vain. I send herewith a report I 
once made on that subject, which I desire you to read. 
In your editorial labors you may find in it perhaps some 
useful hints. If I can find one, I will send you also a 
report I made on the subject of the claim made by In- 
diana for a further donation of land with which to ena- 
ble her to complete her Wabash and Erie Canal. Per- 
sons deeply interested in that grant, as well as others, 
have told me, and more than once written to me, that 
that report secured the success of the application. You 
will observe, however, that the reasoning I urged was 
general; and in principle as applicable to our State as 
to Indiana. Your observations concerning the public 
lands, reminded me that you might find in that report 
also some hints which would be useful. 



Springwells, (near Detroit,) 

July 10, 1845. 
South of " Mason & Dixon's Line," there are men of 
the highest order of genius. The "gentlemen" of the 
Southern region of the States are generally men of great 
polish, of extensive literary attainments, and perhaps 
singularly refined and accomplished in mind and man- 



94 THE LIFE OF 

ners. But in this world there is no good unmixed. The 
institutions of Slavery naturally and inevitably pro- 
duce arrogance, vindictiveness and inordinate ambition. 
These qualities lead to injustice, oppression, despotism. 
It is the law of nature. The struggle which recently 
agitated the people of the United States has grown out 
of qualities such as I have adverted to; so far, the bat- 
tle is with the South, the slaveholder; but it is not 
finally terminated yet. The final effort will be made 
at the next Congress, or rather with the people of the 
non-slaveholding States between this time and the next 
session of Congress. Ours is a Government of opinion. 
A full expression of public opinion, expressed fully and 
with manly firmness, no American Administration will 
dare — except insidiously and under cover — directly to 
oppose. It so happens that the South being as yet nu- 
merically the weakest in population, can effect its ob- 
jects only by deceiving and corrupting the prominent men 
of the North. The South knows well enough how to 
convert the doughfacedness of the North into instruments 
and tools for their leading men to play upon and work 
with. It has been by resorting to such means, that so 
far, in the attainment of their great purpose of extend- 
ing and strengthening the region of Slavery, they have 
partially succeeded. There are many honorable and 
upright Whigs of the South who have looked to this 
measure (especially with reference to the unconstitutional 
manner in which it is sought to be brought about) with 
great fearfulness, and as the harbinger of future trouble, 
civil war, or dissolution ! But they dare not oppose it. 
If the measure be now defeated, it must be through 
public opinion in the North, showing itself through the 
action, in part at least, of the Locofocos of those States. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGR. 95 

Cannot that public opinion be now worked upon, mould- 
ed and elicited through the public press, and through 
other means still within our power? 

A very sensible view of this matter was presented 
last winter before the final action of the Senate of the 
United States, in a Wilkesbarre paper, by an old friend 
of mine, a native of Norwich, Connecticut, but long a 
resident of Pennsylvania, a former editor of the "Vil- 
lege Record," and then a distinguished Member of Con- 
gress from Pennsylvania. As it purports to be in the 
form of a letter addressed to me, I have felt some reluct- 
ance in causing it to be published in the "Advertiser" 
here, but its beneficial influence upon public opinion 
may be lessened by the presumption the Loco's here 
would at once seek to fasten upon, that its publication 
was induced by me. All the parti/ and personal malice 
of which I have heretofore been the subject, more or 
less, would at once be invoked, and thus perhaps, but 
too successfully, the influence of the strong views pre- 
sented upon public opinion lessened or defeated. In 
this view I have supposed that more good might be ef- 
fected perhaps by its publication first in your paper. 
Being published in the Monroe Gazette, I should hope 
other Whig papers in the State might copy it. With 
such objects I send the article to you. Do not publish 
it, unless your own reflections and judgment should impel 
you to do so. If you have any objections please return 
the paper carefully to me ; if you publish it, please send 
me a dollar's worth of copies. The author of the paper 
in question, Charles Miner, was the friend of my youth, 
as well as of my old age ; and I value the original copy 
far more than its intrinsic worth. 



96 THE LIFE OF ' 

SrniNGWELLs, (near Detroit,) 

February 13, 1849. 

I received a few days since a letter from your father 
advising me of your present location in Washington; 
that you desire if practicable to obtain the position of 
Librarian in one of the Departments; and that to aid 
you in your efforts to obtain such a place, you desire a 
letter from me. 

My position in regard to controlling influences in the 
public affairs of this State is now such, that I can nei- 
ther hope, nor do I aspire, to exert any political influ- 
ence whatever abroad or in the political operations of 
the General Government. If your own good sense has 
not already admonished you of the fact — that fact is yet 
to be learned by you — that the political influence of all 
men abroad is very apt to be proportioned to that which 
they may exert at home ; a discarded politician is, gen- 
erally speaking, about the least efficient in such matters 
of all created beings. 

Nevertheless if, among the new heads of Departments 
now soon to be called into the public service, any gen- 
tleman of my acquaintance and between whom and my- 
self the relation of personal friendship exists, should be 
selected, then it would not be improbable perhaps that 
a letter from me might be of service. Upon the hap- 
pening of such contingency, (should your views continue 
unchanged,) it would be quite proper that I should com- 
ply with your excellent father's request; and in such 
an event, you may confidently rely upon such letter 
upon your renewed intimation of your wishes in this 
regard. Nevertheless, my dear Charles, candor obliges 
me to say to you that I should look with great regret 
upon any combination of circumstances which should 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 97 

induce you to enter, or to desire to enter upon such a 
course of life! 

Absolute subordination among the officers of the De- 
partments at Washington — strict, immitigable discipline 
— a blind and prompt obedience to orders — are undoubt- 
edly necessary in the proper and successful conduct of 
affairs there ; but while I admit the probable necessity, 
I cannot but deprecate the injurious influences of such 
despotism, upon that generous spirit and proud and 
manly independence of mind which tend so much to 
give dignity and elevation to the character of man. 
Unreasoning obedience to our superiors in authority is 
the parent of adulation and fawning sycophancy; and 
it is fit to be remembered that in all transactions of this 
life, habit, whether we will or no, almost invariably be- 
comes our Master ! Indeed I know of no better pledge 
of ultimate success and of future elevation of character 
among men, than habits of reflection, of self-reliance, of 
independence of feeling, and of a persevering and un- 
mitigated industry in all our honest pursuits. If, never- 
theless, the advice of your father, and imperative cir- 
cumstances should, in your best opinion, coerce you into 
a course such as you appear to desire, then, upon your 
requisition, I will not withhold any such aid in the way 
your father mentions, which my relative position may 
enable me to render. 



Detroit, December 15, 1858. 
I am sorry that you were pained by the changes you 
witnessed about the home of your childhood : but I was 
not surprised to learn it, for I have experienced person- 



98 THE LIFE OF 

ally precisely such emotions, and more than once. I 
love in imagination to recall old objects as they were 
and as I knew them; when they are actually seen again, 
the charm is dissolved, and gloom takes the place of 
pleasure. When I returned, after many years' absence, 
to my old home in Norwich, I found, it is true, the same 
old precipitous hills and moss-grown rocks, but the living 
world there had all changed ! The laughter-loving play- 
mates of my early youth were no longer there ! Some 
had gone forever, some had become heads of families, 
some had grown up to be sturdy men with beards! I 
hastened away disappointed and unhappy. The truth 
is, this is a life of change. In a short period all objects 
lose their identity; and the fond associations of early 
life can exist only in fancy, or as you say, in our dreams. 
I could moralize upon this, but I have neither space nor 
time. 

And now a few words as to the business part of your 
letter. When I found myself convalescent I commenced 
the review you desired me to make of my "life and 
ventures" so far, in this busy world of ours. It was 
like tooth-drawing (the only amusement they have in 
Gottenbourg, Voltaire says.) But I made some pro- 
gress and brought myself down, in the march of events, 
to the summer of 1820; and yet, for old age is prone 
to prolixity, I found it covering several pages of manu- 
script. I then casually read a brief notice of your 
forthcoming work, again referred to your letter, and 
found myself all wrong, and that what I had written 
would not suit the plan of your book. I enclose 
therefore a brief abstract of facts which will answer 
your purpose. As I have gone so far with the other 
matter, if my courage hold out, I mag at some future 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 99 

time finish it, at least down to the termination of my 
public life. And when will your "Dictionary of Con- 
gress" be out? I shall be pleased to hear of its pro- 
gress and success, and, in the fullness of time, I shall 
desire a copy. 

Have you written to Charles Miner, of Wilkesbarre, 
Pennsylvania, or have you obtained minutes of his pub- 
lic and eventful life ? He is a native of Norwich, and 
about my age. In very early life we were schoolmates 
and "play fellows" together, and through all the vicis- 
itudes of life we have been attached to each other by a 
continuous and earnest friendship. Not many years 
after I was taken to the Ohio Valley, he, with his 
family, was removed to Wilkesbarre. After he had at- 
tained to the stature of manhood he became connected 
with his elder brother in the conduct of a newspaper 
at Wilkesbarre. Some years later, he removed to West 
Chester, in Pennsylvania, and there, during many years, 
published the "Village Record." That paper acquired 
for him a very high reputation. The great knowledge, 
the various talent, and the pure and classical taste 
which it evinced, rendered that paper one of the very 
best then published in the whole country. Mr. Miner 
subsequently became very extensively known and most 
highly esteemed by the prominent and talented men of 
that period. Your recent friend, Mr. Webster, was 
proud I believe to class him among his warm-hearted 
friends and earnest admirers. During the short time 
he was in Congress he was most highly respected. But 
his hearing became impaired, and he felt himself com- 
pelled, by his increasing deafness to decline a re-election 
to Congress, and to quit public life altogether. But for 
that infimity I have no doubt he would have risen to 



100 THE LIFE OF 

great political eminence. The people of Norwich were 
proud of him. 

:}: # :i: H: * ♦ 

I am sorry to say that your old friend Mrs. Wood- 
bridge, as well as myself, have both suffered very much 
from sickness since you were here; we look forward to 
warm Aveather with hope, however, and are both of us, 
myself especially, in better health. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 101 



CHAPTER XI. 

In this chapter of his biographical essay, the editor 
proposes to embody the substance of several coinniuni- 
cations that have been made to him by some of the 
older friends of Mr. Woodbridge. Although several 
facts and opinions contained in them may already have 
appeared in the preceding pages, they will be given pre- 
cisely as they were written ; and as there seems to be 
no alternative, the editor hopes to be excused for be- 
ginning with the following letter from his father, Charles 
James Lanman, Esq., of New London, Connecticut, and 
dated March 22, 1866: 



Soon after the war of the Revolution, a small settle- 
ment was formed at Marietta in the North West Terri- 
tory. It was a pleasant location at the mouth of the 
Muskingham River, and bearing striking indications of 
having been an Indian village of considerable purpose. 
The scenery was romantic, and not far removed from 
Blannerhasset's Island in the Ohio river. This island was 
occupied by a gentleman who had mysteriously found 
his way there from Ireland, and his wife, a beautiful 
woman, afterwards exercising much influence over Aaron 



102 THE LIFE OF 

Burr, who, in his conspiracy, made this island his head- 
quarters. A few of the officers had located at Marietta, 
bringing with them the free and easy habits to which 
they had been accustomed, and it is believed to have 
been the only settlement of Anglo-Saxons within the 
Territory. Here and there were remains of the old 
French Traders. A geography published in London 
about that time by some celebrated explorer, states that 
at Marietta, a stopping place for flat-boats on descend- 
ing the river, there w T as a record of one hundred horses 
and one barouche having passed that point during a year, 
that a large body of good land lay between the Ohio 
River and the Great Lakes, and that sometimes a per- 
son crossed the Ohio river into that tract. The North 
Western Territory was remote; to a great portion of it 
the Indian title was not extinguished. Its avenues of 
travel were Indian trails, the settlers Avere sparse, and 
the silence and solitude of the wilderness were only 
broken by the stealthy tread of the hunter. What is 
now Cincinnati was then Fort Washington, which was 
in command of General Josiah Harmar, the father of 
your aunt Sarah's late husband. 

In 1791, Dudley Woodbridge removed from Norwich, 
Connecticut, to the North Western Territory and located 
at Marietta among the few adventurers who had preced- 
ed him. He was a merchant and successful. His 
wife was a woman of strong intellect and of great reso- 
lution; his children were promising, and were charmed 
by the romance which they expected to find in a dis- 
tant and wild country. They were young and full of 
the promise of hope which was fully realized. The eld- 
est son, Dudley, became one of the most accomplished 
merchants of the day. As the population increased so 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 103 

did his business. He constructed a vessel, laded it with 
furs, and, taking advantage of the freshets, sent it to 
France, making a successful voyage. That was the 
first square-rigged vessel which ever descended the Falls 
of the Ohio. The second son was William, and the 
third was John who became a successful manager of the 
Bank of Chilicothe. The daughters were women of in- 
tellect and culture, of decided traits of character, most 
estimable and full of the spirit of adventure. William 
was born in 1780, and after spending a few years in 
that wild country, during which he acquired a complete 
knowledge of the French language — both in speaking 
and writing — returned to New England. He completed 
his education, and at the celebrated Law school, under 
the late Judge Reeves of Litchfield, Connecticut, quali- 
fied for the Bar. He was ambitious; the North Western 
Territory furnished a wide field for enterprise and in- 
dustry — Ohio having in the mean time become organized 
as one of the Federal States. Having commenced the 
practice of his profession, he soon married a daughter 
of the late Judge Trumbull of Connecticut, for many 
years on the Bench of that State, and the author of Mc- 
Fingal. Judge Trumbull was a man of singular modes- 
ty and worth, of great acquirements, and full of genial 
humor. In after years, when he became by constitu- 
tional age disqualified for the Bar, and the home of Gov- 
ernor Woodbridge was at Detroit, Judge Trumbull and 
wife found, with their children at that place, all that 
filial kindness and the warmest affection could give, and 
there also they found their graves. 

The State of Ohio being organized and courts estab- 
lished, the Law Circuits embracing many miles in extent, 
as was the custom, the Bar accompanied the Judges, 



104 THE LIFE OF 

often occupying weeks, and their adventures in the wild 
and crude state of things furnished much of adventure 
and of mirth. 

In 1807, Mr. Woodbridge was in the Legislature of 
Ohio and sustained a prominent position there. He was 
well read in the law, his views were liberal, his mind 
acute and admirably adapted to aid in establishing the 
principles and policy which should govern a new 
State. 

In the year 1814, Mr. Woodbridge was appointed by 
President Madison, Secretary of the Territory of Mich- 
igan, and soon afterwards Collector of the Port of De- 
troit. While thus officiating, and through his instru- 
mentality, one of the vessels which had been sunk at 
Erie by Commodore Perry for preservation, was raised 
and employed in the Revenue Service. The Territory 
of Michigan at that time embraced what are now Wis- 
consin, Iowa, and Minnesota, and the immense extent 
of country North West, the Civil Government of which 
centred at Detroit; and as Secretary of the Territory, 
in the absence of the Governor, it was his duty to act 
as such. Hence his labors were sometimes severe, and 
other public demands monopolized his time; and, al- 
though he loved his profession, and was admirably fitted 
for it, he was compelled to consider it subordinate. 
His law library was splendid and he valued it as the 
apple of his eye. In important cases, however, he 
sometimes acted, and was employed by the Hudson's 
Bay and American Fur Companies as their legal ad- 
viser and manager for several years. 

Congress having authorized a Delegate to be sent to 
Washington, and chiefly at his instance, he was chosen 
the first Delegate from Michigan, in 1819, and with un- 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 105 

wearied effort devoted himself to the interests of those 
embryo States now so large and populous and wealthy. 
He was also chosen a member of the convention to form 
a constitution for the State of Michigan, and his experi- 
ence and acumen were highly appreciated by that body, 
and he had much to do with the policy which was pur- 
sued. As a Judge of the Supreme Court, he sustained 
the law, the character of the Bar, and his own, with 
great ability; the Bar of Michigan perhaps not being 
surpassed by that of any State in the Union. In 1839, 
he was elected Governor of the State, and discharged 
its duties with signal ability. In 1841, he was chosen 
a Senator in Congress, and served his constitutional 
term. Being a pioneer, he was attached to and devoted 
to the interests of the North Western States, and used 
his official position and personal efforts in developing 
their resources and promoting their progress. Among 
the few master spirits with whom he co-operated — most 
of whom have gone off the stage — there were few at 
that period, who were more successful in the advance- 
ment of the great North West. 

His health was delicate, and his nervous system very 
sensitive, and he was for many years distressed with 
asthma, which often prevented sleep, and a stranger 
might, at such times, think him irritable — but to those 
who knew him well, there was always within a kind 
and genial heart. He was a man of great determina- 
tion, and from his consciousness of right, either in 
thought or act, he could not be swerved. His domestic 
attachments were very strong. He loved his home and 
his library, but when sometimes called out, no man could 
contribute more than he did to the enjoyments of social 
life. His local attachments too were strong; and al- 
14 



106 THE LIFE OF 

though he left his native State when a child, he occa- 
sionally re-visited it, traversed his native hills, and re- 
newed his early associations. On one occasion he pur- 
chased what was first called a chaise and afterwards a 
sis:, and ordered it to he sent to him at Detroit. After 
the lapse of months, it reached its destination at a cost 
of more than double the price of the vehicle, arriving in 
a box nearly as large as a dwelling-house. What 
changes have taken place in the life of one man ! Then 
the scream of the steam whistle was not heard, and no 
canal meandered from the Lakes to tide water. That 
great enterprize which made an Empire of the West, 
was only an embryo in the great mind of DeWitt Clin- 
ton. When I first went to the West, I travelled from 
Buffalo to Detroit on horseback along the Southern 
shore of Lake Erie. 

Having lost his wife, to whom he was most deeply 
attached, Mr. Woodbridge's horizon darkened, and he 
died not many months afterwards. He passed away at 
a ripe old age, leaving to his children the rich legacy of 
a spotless name, and by those who understood his char- 
acter will be ever remembered with the highest respect 
and esteem. 

He was my warm friend and adviser from the time 
that I first went to the West until my return to Con- 
necticut in 1835, and I regret that, of the great number 
of letters I have received from him, I can at present 
lay my hand only upon the last two which are herewith 
enclosed. 

Yours affectionately, 

Ciias. Jas. Lanman. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 107 

Detroit, March 28, 1859. 

My dear Friend: — Circumstances, with a detail of 
which I will not now annoy you, render me exceeding- 
ly desirous, if without too great a sacrifice I can do it, 
to sell out all the real estate I hold here, and, "bag and 
baggage," in my old age move out of Michigan: — per- 
haps to my native State— perhaps to St. Augustine in 
Florida, or perhaps into the Ohio valley where I have 
many friends yet. If such a measure were practicable, 
I would adopt it to-morrow. 

In reference to such a purpose it has occurred to me 
that among your numerous and widely-spread acquaint- 
ance, you might know of enterprising Yankees, and 
wealthy withal, who would be disposed to locate here 
large manufacturing establishments, one or more, on the 
"water front" of my old Farm. In the whole range 
of my personal observation, I know of no more promis- 
ing locations for such purposes, especially if connected 
with the manufacture of copper or iron. I speak with 
especial reference to the convenience of bringing here, 
by water, the raw materials from Lake Superior or in- 
deed from any quarter. You know how excellent and 
how safe our harbor here is, at all seasons of the year ; 
how easily accessible it is, through these beautiful and 
wide inland seas, from almost every point of compass; 
and whether for the procurement of the raw materials 
or for the transmission and spreading far and wide of 
the manufactured article, how great and abundant are 
the facilities the navigation furnishes. Nor should the 
concentration of railroads here be lost sight of. J, you 
know, am too old now — too spiritless and too inexperi- 
enced in such matters, to adventure now in such a field. 
But do you know of any who, having capital, would be 



108 THE LIFE OF 

better fitted for it ? I would be pleased so to adventure ? 

We are creatures of circumstances in this wide world ; 
all must bend to their condition. I can claim no ex- 
emption from the common fate, and must bend too. 
Old and infirm as I am, I feel that I must get away 
from here, if I can. If there should seem anything 
mysterious in this declaration, you will find a solution 
of the mystery in the two pamphets I send to you by 
the mail that takes this. In despite of our earnest re- 
monstrances, all the farms from this down two or three 
miles to " Sand Hill," have been placed under the des- 
potic and rapacious grasp of the authorities of the cor- 
poration of Detroit. All our farms, as farms, will be 
ruined by it — and merchants, and manufacturers, and 
men connected with the navigation of these inland seas, 
must take our places. They live by it and become 
rich! I was sick and could not go to Lansing; the 
same illness prevented me from preparing t\ie memorial 
(of which I also send a copy to you) until in fact it 
was too late, until the session was advancing to its 
close. These pamphlets will tell you the whole story. 
Please read them if you can muster courage to do so, 
and let me know what you think of the whole matter. 

It is a long, long time, my dear sir, since you have 
ceased to write to me. Charles, your son, tells me you 
are low-spirited ! Do not, I pray you, give way to such 
feeling ! You arc yet comparatively young ; you have 
yet a strong hold upon life; and you have too much 
genius, too much knowledge, too much liveliness of tem- 
per, and talents of too high an order, to be justified in 
giving way to corroding despondency ! Think of all 
this and realize that it is offered to you by your old 
friend in all kindness and sincerity. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 109 

* # * :i: * * 

Don't fail to remember us to our valued friend of 
early years, your Mrs. Lanman, and believe me, dear 
Charles, 

Very truly and faithfully yours, 

Wm. Woodbridge. 
Charles James Lanman, Esq., 

Norwich. Connecticut. 



Detroit, April 7, 1859. 

My dear Sir: — Your favor of the first instant has 
reached me : I thank you for it. Did it never occur to 
you that the little evils of this life — in the aggregate — 
cause us more unhappiness than heavier misfortunes? 
The latter arouse all the manliness of our philosophy, 
if we have any, and we meet them successfully; but 
against the former — the little musqueto-bites of life — 
our innate pride of feeling does not brace us up against 
them! I am vexed that my pamphlets did not reach 
you. Some reckless Postmaster or some impertinent 
filcher, has I suppose purloined them; but having them 
on hand I send you another set. 

I think you do wrong, my dear friend, to reproach 
yourself for going back to Connecticut. It would have 
been well, it would have been better for you, I think, 
if, as soon as the motive which took you there had 
ceased, you had then come back. Multitudes of friends 
would have greeted you on your return; there were 
none but friends to you all about. Your fine talents 
and all the prestige of success smiling about you, would 
have secured you competence and honors! But every 



HO ME LIFE OF 

impulse of filial gratitude and duty required you to go ; 
who but his much-loved son would have smoothed the 
way of your aged and infirm father to his final rest? 
Besides, knowledge is better than wealth. And what 
in that regard, would have been the condition of your 
children, if they had been deprived of the advantages 
of your incomparably better schools ? Nor is it unwor- 
thy of regard, that they should have been bronght up, 
and their physical constitutions formed and strength- 
ened in so pure, so fine a climate. Do not reproach 
yourself then, my friend, that you obeyed such impuls- 
es, and think and try to make all for the best. But it 
is with the future you now have to do, not the past. I 
wish I could aid you in selecting such a course as pru- 
dence and wisdom might sanction; but it does not seem 
to me that I can now do so. * * * Do not give 
way to despondency or gloom! We are so constituted, 
intellectually I mean, that, like the Hudibrastic sword, 
you have read of, the mind " will eat into itself, for lack 
of something else to hew and hack." Sorrows enough 
we all have. Do not let us increase by brooding- 
over them. I have little right, I know, to turn moral- 
izer. Philosophy is not my forte, nor do I know that I 
have any forte at all. But this I know, that I love my 
friends, and wish to see them happy and successful in 
all honorable things ! And if I could succeed in touch- 
ing one single chord that might awaken cheerfulness in 
your heart, it would greatly please me. 

Make my best respects to Mrs. Lanman, and tell her, 
if you please, that Mrs. W. and myself have both 
grown very old and very infirm, since we last saw 
her. It is now many months since either of us have 
been able to leave the house, even to go up so far as 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. Ill 

the city — now become not a little odious to both of 
us. Adieu. 

Yours truly, 

Wm. Woodbridge. 
Charles James Lanman, Esq., 

Norwich, Connecticut. 



Another communication which has been received by 
the editor, touching the character of Mr. Woodbridge, 
comes from Christopher Bruckner, Esq., of Monroe, 
Michigan, dated March 19, 1866: — 

Noticing in the Detroit papers that you are writing 

the life of the late Governor William Woodbridge, and 

that you desire correspondence and information relating 

to the deceased, I beg leave to enclose herewith three 

letters from him to me of the year 1850. You may, 

sir, make such use of them as discretion will dictate, 

and please return the originals. 

****** 

My acquaintance with the Governor dated from near 
the year 1838, when he assisted me with his great legal 
abilities as counsel in an important and unfortunate con- 
troversy about a tract of land which had been sold and 
patented time by the United States. 

I had often the honor of conversing with him, and 
called a number of times at his beloved old homestead 
in Springwells, (Detroit,) and I have never met with 
a gentleman whose venerable presence, arguments, pen- 
etration, and character made a deeper or more agreeable 
impression upon me. I often thought, while talking 



112 THE LIFE OF 

with him, "this man deserves to be President of the 
United States." 

His cordiality was not less remarkable. On a visit 
to Detroit in September, 1846, with a brother-in-law of 
mine, a clergyman from Germany, I introduced him to 
the Governor, (then United States Senator,) at his 
mansion, and he retained us a couple of hours, convers- 
ing with my relative on a great variety of topics, Euro- 
pean and American ; he prognosticated the political and 
social storm, which eventuated in the European Revo- 
lutions of 1848. 

Pomology was also a subject of their conversation, 
and it was at this juncture that the Governor sent for 
a plate of his favorite secJcle pears of which he speaks 
in one of his letters. He said that the trees in his gar- 
den came originally from Pennsylvania, and a truly de- 
licious pear they were. The Governor finally permitted 
us to depart, although not without some of the fine fruit, 
and a souvenir to my brother-in-law, in the shape of 
Fremont's celebrated Reports of Explorations and Ex- 
peditions across the Rocky Mountains. 

Governor Woodbridge was at that time complaining 
already of asthma, which was very troublesome to him. 
In the summer or spring of 1850, I met him in this 
city, and it was at that time that his emaciated looks 
filled me with alarm, and made me recommend to him 
to try at least the Rhine wine in the small jug! The 
nature of pure and unadnlterated Rhenish Mines was 
then not so well understood here as at present, and 
should Governor Woodbridge's testimony be published, 
I hope our ultra-temperance men will take no umbrage 
at it, but learn to recommend and foster the culture of 
the grape in this country by all means in their power. \ 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 113 

Of the letters alluded to above, the editor thinks it 
advisable to publish in this place only the following : — 

Springwells, (near Detroit,) 

August 30, 1850. 
Chr. Bruckner, Esq. 

My dear Sir: — The six bottles of Rhenish wine, 
which you had the kindness to cause to be sent to me 
were safely delivered on the 15th instant by the "Ex- 
press" — some three or four days before the receipt 
of your esteemed favor of that date. I have already 
made much progress in its consumption, and cannot hes- 
itate in renewing my testimony in favor of its agreeable, 
healthy, and restorative qualities. It came, too, pre- 
cisely at a time when I wanted it most, having been re- 
duced by my previous illness to the weakness of abso- 
lute infancy. I find nothing more useful nor pleasant 
than this light and healthy drink. But much as I es- 
teem it, I cannot consent to encroach any further upon 
the store you had the providence to provide of it for 
Mrs. Bruckner. Independent of the agreeable and re- 
cuperative qualities of the drink, ancient associations of 
home and of the "father-land," must give to it for Mrs. 
Bruckner a peculiar charm, which it would be very gross 
selfishness in me to deprive her of — and I beg you to 
understand that I am not capable of harboring so un- 
kind a wish ! 

Had your friend in Monroe still retained the supply 
he originally had, and at so low a price as you mention- 
ed to me, I should have been pleased to have given him 
the money for a barrel of it. But as I am circum- 
stanced I must forego the gratification it would have 
given me, and, making a virtue of necessity, (as poor 
15 



H4 THE LIFE OF 

human nature is wont to do,) learn to practice the 
Christian precept of self-denial in this particular. I can 
have no expectation that the regular importers for sale 
of that article could afford to sell it here, at anything 
like the price at which this might have been obtained, 
and being entirely out of business^ now that I am so 
suddenly dropt down from all public employ; having 
always freely expended the whole of the compensation 
and salary which, from time to time, accrued to me, as 
a public man; and having no income from any source 
which I could be justified in applying to purposes of 
luxury; I must of course relinquish all thought of in- 
dulging further, in such a purchase, at the increased 
price which would be asked for the article. At the 
same time be pleased to accept my thanks for the 
kindness which prompted you to make the sugges- 
tion. 

You will do me the favor to make my best respects to 
.Mrs. Bruckner, and express to her my acknowledg- 
ments for the very kind and friendly feeling which had 
prompted her intention to accompany the wine sent 
with a "petit gateau" of her own make. Be pleased to 
say to her that, as a testimonial of her esteem and 
friendship, I should have accepted the present — if it 
had come — with the greatest pleasure, and should have 
valued it, from a consideration of the kind motive 
which prompted the thought, quite beyond its intrinsic 
worth, however grateful to the taste it might have 
been. Excuse me for sending to you so slovenly a 
scrawl, and believe me, I pray you, whether in sick- 
ness or in health, 

Very truly, your friend, 

Wm. Woodbridge. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 115 

Our next tribute to the memory of Mr. Woodbridge, 
comes to us from one who knew him for many years,- 
and who is himself a lawyer of ability : — 

United States Senate Chamber, 
Washington, March 30, 1866. 
Dear Sir: — Yours of the 27th ult. reached me as I 
was starting for home to bury my dear wife, who died 
on the 28th February, and of course I could give it lit- 
tle attention. And even now I am so pressed with en- 
gagements that I cannot render, I fear, any appreciable 
aid. I will, however, speak briefly of Governor Wood- 
bridge's professional talent. He was a man of very 
thorough professional attainments, familiar with all the 
standard English writers, and with the principles of Eng- 
lish and American law. He loved law books, and es- 
pecially old ones, and delved with alacrity into the 
oldest reports and treatises. But it must not be inferred 
that he was inattentive to modern decisions, whether 
English or American, or to the general progress of the 
science of Jurisprudence. He was a scholarly, able 
man. In the conduct of a case at the Bar, though al- 
ways earnest and persevering, he was uniformly cour- 
teous. No opponent ever had cause to reproach him 
with the slightest remissness in his intercourse as coun- 
sel. His learning, his wit, his gentlemanly manner al- 
ways won for him the admiration of the Bench, the 
Bar, and the bystanders. Towards a witness, on cross- 
examination, he was always mild and gentle, though by 
no means blind to his shifts and evasions, if he commit- 
ted any. He was not perhaps the most powerful advocate 
in analyzing testimony and exposing falsehood or im- 
probabilities, but rather relied for success upon his 



H(J THE LIFE OP 

points of law, which he certainly put with great force 
and clearness. And yet his efforts before a jury were 
so persuasive, kind, and smooth that he seldom lost a 
verdict. I first heard him address a jury in 1833, in 
an obstinately contested case, in which Judge Wm. A. 
Fletcher and Henry S. Cole, Esq., were opposed to him, 
and General Charles Larned on his side; and I can 
never forget the effect produced upon my mind and feel- 
ings by his gentle and feeling eloquence. Woodbridge 
commented on the law of the case so clearly, so con- 
vincingly that Larned was completely relieved from that 
part of the task, and enabled to address himself to the 
evidence — a field in which he was powerful. The jury 
believed them and gave them a verdict. I saw much 
of Judge W.'s practice for years afterwards, and ever 
esteemed him as one of the ablest lawyers I have ever 
known. And in his practice, though always faithful to 
his client, and earnest in the advocacy of his cause, he 
was scrupulously honest and fair. He despised all arti- 
fice, and never resorted to any but the most honorable 
means of obtaining success. 

His temper, when in health, was always buoyant and 
happy, animated with good humor and a real friend- 
ship for his fellows ; and at our ancient social gatherings 
at the " Bar dinners," he was the prince of wit and good 
feeling, though never sinking to the low or vulgar. His 
taste was highly cultivated and refined, and rather 
easily offended by coarse expressions or unbecoming 
conduct. I remain, very truly, 

Your obedient servant, 

J. M. Howard. 
Charles Lanman, Esq., 

Georgetown, D. 0. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 117 

Among those who kindly responded to the editor's 
appeal for personal recollections of Mr. Woodbridge was 
the Hon. Robert McClelland, and from his communica- 
tion is quoted the following : — 

I doubt not you have already marked out the plan of 
your work, and I hope it embraces not only the life of 
our lamented friend, but a sketch of the early history of 
our State. The latter can be so interwoven with the 
former as to make both more complete ; because, with 
the exception of General Cass, there was no man who 
did more to mould the character of the State than Gov- 
ernor Woodbridge. The history of your uncle, James 
H. Lanman, is valuable, and there have been published 
since several lives of General Cass, and other works, 
which would give you much of the requisite material. 
Besides this are yet left some of the most intelligent of 
our old residents, who could give much information 
about the primitive days of the Territory of Michigan, 

which in your undertaking would be important. 
****** 

I became acquainted with Governor Woodbridge in 
the year 1833, under peculiar circumstances. I ar- 
rived in Monroe in February of that year, about the 
same time that Governor Felch removed there. The 
law then required a residence of six months for admis- 
sion to practice at the bar, and as the time had nearly 
elapsed, we were fondly anticipating admission to the 
next term of the court. In the interim, however, the 
Legislative Council met and changed the time of proba- 
tion to one year. When I left my home in Franklin 
county, Pennsylvania, my point of destination was Vicks- 
burg, Mississippi, and for the purpose of establishing 



118 THE LIFE OF 

myself there. Arriving at Pittsburg, I found the chol- 
era prevailing on the Mississippi, and was influenced to 
remain there ten months, when the Western fever 
brought me into the Territory. When our court assem- 
bled, notwithstanding the change in the law, Felch 
and myself determined to apply for admission on the 
ground that our application should be controlled by the 
law in force at the time we arrived. I was introduced 
to Governor Woodbridge and exhibited to him certain 
letters from old friends to prominent men in the South 
West, and he, being acquainted with several of the 
writers, took a deep interest in my behalf; and although 
we were unsuccessful, two of the Judges being against 
and one for granting the application, I became warmly 
attached to him. In spite of our opposition in politics, 
our personal and friendly relations never changed, as 
you will perceive by the letter, of which I send you a 
copy. This I understand is the last he wrote, and it is 
a portrait of his character. 

As you are well aware, he was a finely educated, old- 
fashioned gentleman, high-toned, honorable, and refined. 
His memory was remarkably good, his reading exten- 
sive, and there were few better common-law lawyers in 
the country. As a politician, he was frank and fair, 
and above resorting to any questionable devices to suc- 
ceed. I was in the first Constitutional Convention with 
him in 1835; in the State House of Representatives 
when he was in the Senate; again in the House when 
he was Governor; in the National House of Represen- 
tatives when he was in the United States Senate — and 
I always cheerfully accorded to him great ability and 
Hie strictest integrity, and say, without hesitation, that 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGK. 110 

I never knew a public man more thoroughly devoted to 
the great leading interests of the State. 

There are many anecdotes connected with Governor 
Woodbridge, and incidents in his life, which are un- 
known to me. Your father was one of his earliest, most 
intimate friends; and his recollections of the past, as 
with most men of his age, must be bright and of import- 
ance to you. If you, or any intelligent gentleman 
here would visit the old settlers, you might, with the 
aid of the works alluded to, prepare a book which would 
meet with great favor among our people, and be of value 
to posterity. 



The letter which came enclosed in that from Gov. 
McClelland was as follows: 

Detroit, October 14, 1861. 
To the Hon. Mr. McClelland: 

Dear Sir: — I thank you for your prompt attention 
to the subject of my letter to Mr. Fraser, relative to the 
right of way, the " Grand Trunk Railroad Company " 
were sometime since desirous to obtain across my farm: 
I thank you still more for the expression of kindness 
and friendly feeling, contained in your note to me on 
the same subject, which came duly to hand. 

The proprieties of social intercourse, I very well 
know, required an earlier recognition of your polite 
communication. But sickness, greatly aggravated by 
domestic sorrows and the constantly repeated persecu- 
tions of the tyrannical rulers of this odious municipal- 
ity, has hitherto incapacitated me for writing and for 
any sort of business. My apology will be received, I 



120 THE LIFE OF 

persuade myself, in the same spirit of kindness in which 
it is tendered. 

I owe a heavy debt to my son, (Dudley B. Wood- 
bridge,) for services most faithfully rendered since he 
was twenty-one years old; services which I have not 
the means to requite. All the property I own within 
the limits of this corporation, if sold at public auction, 
(as it is manifestly intended by my oppressors to do,) 
would not by a large sum, I am persuaded, sell for 
enough to pay for the enormous burthens they have im- 
posed upon me. The Legislature have treated with 
contumely my repeated applications for relief; and from 
an elective judiciary, from Judges who owe their coveted 
offices, and their continuance in them, to the favour of 
a mob of interested jobbers, what relief, considering the 
general character of excited human nature, could I ra- 
tionally expect? 

Almost all I own on earth is, unhappily, within the 
grasp of these despotic rulers ; and I am therefore with- 
out protection, subject to be despoiled of it at their 
pleasure. My farm, however, (private claim, Nos. 22 
and 248,) extends a short distance beyond the limits of 
the corporation, being a fraction of fifteen or twenty 
acres. This, happily, the corporation has no power over 
— and this, (together with the body of my farm within 
the city, constituting almost all I own on earth,) remains 
as yet beyond the reach of their rapacity. This, there- 
fore, I have promised to convey to my son, and have 
waited only for the final adjustment of the matter of 
the right of way, which recently your friends of the 
"Grand Trunk" have boon desirous to procure; for this 
"way" will be comprehended within the small tract I 
have promised to my sou. The money to be paid for 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 121 

it will, it is true, accrue to my son when paid. But 
still, as the negotiation for its purchase began with the 
agent of the "Grand Trunk" and myself, I have thought 
it better that it should be concluded while the title still 
remains with me. I had hoped, considering what had 
passed between Mr. Fraser and myself, that a definite 
proposition — a defined sum as the fair price of the right 
— would have been proposed to me; which I might ac- 
cept, with or without modification : such being, I thought, 
the most simple and easiest mode of adjusting the whole 
matter. Be pleased to consider it, and if it suit you, 
converse with my son (who hands this to you) on the 
subject. I shall not be willing, at any rate, to settle 
the matter except upon terms he will consent to. This 
being done, I shall be .gratified by an opportunity to 
converse with you personally on the subject; and if you 
concur in that view, please arrange with my son when 
and how the matter shall be conducted. 

In reference to the condition of my health, I cannot 
promise that I can call at your residence. But I hope 
I need not say to you that I do not forget the few 
friends that remain to me of my ancient acquaintances, 
among whom I have always taken the liberty to com- 
prise you — and that it will give me pleasure, if not too 
much borne down by age and sickness, at all times to 
see you at my own residence. 

In the mean time, I remain, dear sir, with much es- 
teem, 

Very truly yours, 

Wm. Woodbridge. 

Be pleased to accept a few pears — the product of 
my garden. They were good when last week I put 
them up for you, but I could not send them up to you 
16 



122 THE LIFE OF 

then, and I fear they may have become too ripe, and 
perhaps in part decayed now. 

Yours truly, W. W. 



Another tribute of respect which the editor thinks it 
advisable to publish at present, is from one who, while 
a resident of Michigan, reflected honor upon her good 
name : — 

Niagara Falls, New York, 

April 25, 1866. 
Dear Sir : — Although I knew Governor Woodbridge 
some twenty years and during four years of his Sena- 
torial term quite intimately, my recollections of him are 
quite general and would possess little value to his biog- 
rapher. I knew him first in 1827, as the then Secre- 
tary of the Territory of Michigan, and as a distin- 
guished (both for his learning and seniority) member of 
the Bar. He was always eminent at the terms of the Su- 
preme Court, taking part in most if not all the important 
causes, and always arguing them with great learning 
and ability, as well as persistently. His field of profes- 
sional labor in the courts was in the argument of 
questions of law, rather than in trials by jury, being in 
his tastes more the lawyer than the advocate. He had 
studied very thoroughly the common law of England 
and was learned in its history, its principles, and tech- 
nicalities. He spoke fluently the French language, was 
familiar with the English classics, and an accomplished 
though somewhat diffuse writer. He was for several 
years one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 123 

Territory. But unfortunately- as, during that period, 
the decisions of that Court were not reported, there are 
no published records of his judicial labors. His State 
papers as Governor of the State are however preserved, 
and can be referred to, to illustrate his character and 
abilities as a Statesman. 

During his Senatorial career he was a laborious and 
able investigator of all questions it became his duty to 
elaborate, and always shed great light on them. This 
was especially the case while he was chairman of the 
committee on Public Lands, at a period when the duties 
and responsibilities of that committee were very great. 

During the latter part of his life he lived in great se- 
clusion, seldom appearing abroad, apparently realizing 
in the quiet avocations of his home and in literary pur- 
suits his chief enjoyments. 

Very respectfully yours, 

A. S. Porter. 
Charles Lanman, Esq. 



From the Hon. Henry Chipman, now in the eighty- 
second year of his age, the editor has received the fol- 
lowing on the judicial character and services of his 
friend and former associate on the Bench — 

Mr. Woodbridge having resigned the office of Secre- 
tary of the Territory of Michigan, the Hon. James 
Witherell, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of 
the Territory, was appointed to supply the vacancy. 
His first appearance on the Bench of that Court was in 
May, 1828. He had previously occupied his time, not 



124 THE LIFE OF 

otherwise due to his official station, in the practice of law, 
and undisputedly stood at the head of the profession in 
Michigan. His judicial associates were Solomon Sibley, 
an old resident and lawyer, and a former Delegate 
of the Territory in Congress; and myself, a native 
of Vermont, who had been in the practice of the law 
in South Carolina and removed to Detroit in 1824. 

Judge Woodbridge was a well-read lawyer, and pro- 
foundly versed in and familiar with the practical and 
elementary principles of the law, and was eminently 
fitted, in manner and habit of mind, to fulfil the most 
useful and acceptable qualifications of Judge. " Suaviter 
in modo, et fortiter in re" was a favorite maxim of his life, 
exhibited in all his social and public relations. The 
practical usefulness of this maxim was no where so ap- 
plicable and beautifully illustrated as in his judicial 
character. 

The Ordinance of 1787, passed by the old Continen- 
tal Congress for the government of the Territory north 
west of the river Ohio, was the organic law of the first 
and each succeeding Territory formed out of the public 
domain. Thus imparting* as it were, the first breath 
of political life into the then feeble infantine settle- 
ments scattered over the surface of the vast North 
Western wilderness, and which, from its small begin- 
ning, has grown in population, wealth, and power to a 
magnitude sufficient to make it an empire of itself. 

In 1799, just after the new Federal Constitution 
went into effect, Congress adopted the Ordinance of 
1787, with only such alterations as were necessary to 
adapt its provisions to the requirements of that Consti- 
tution. 

Under this ordinance the judicial power of the Terri- 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 125 

'tory was lodged in three Judges, having common law 
power, to be appointed by the President of the United 
States, with the consent of the Senate, to hold their of- 
fices during good behaviour. This tenure was after- 
wards reduced to a term of four years, and this was the 
term for which Judge Woodbridge and his associates 
were appointed. 

The jurisdiction of tne Court was varied and exten- 
sive, embracing general chancery and common law pow- 
ers ; cognizance of criminal cases arising under the Ter- 
ritorial as well as the United States laws, appellate 
jurisdiction over the County Courts of the Territory, 
and original cognizance, the same as in District and 
Circuit Courts of the United States, in matters relating 
to violations of the revenue laws of the United States, 
and in all other suits arising in the Territory in which 
the United States was a party. 

At this period, and not till Michigan had became a 
State, were there any published reports of judicial de- 
cisions in the Territory. The practising lawyers were 
from different States, educated and partial to whatever 
was peculiar or exceptionable in the practice and de- 
cisions of their several States. It must also be remem- 
bered that the society and institutions of the Territory 
were, at that time, in an initial state of formation; in 
which state it may well be believed that a greater de- 
gree of diverse speculative opinions prevailed than in 
older and settled communities. 

Under the existence of this state of things, it is not 
strange that a necessity was often imposed upon the 
Court to examine into the elementary principles on 
which the law of the case depended. 

In every discussion of this nature, the learning and 



126 THE LIFE OF 

industry of Judge Woodbridge was found equal to the" 
exigency of the case and to a clear and satisfactory 
solution of the most difficult questions, in conformity 
with the best approved judicial precedents. 

During Judge Woodbridge's term of office, a case 
Mas introduced in Court which, for the time, produced 
some excitement and was unfairly commented upon by 
some of the party papers of th'e day, and is therefore 
entitled to notice. * 

One John Reed had been tried in the Court before 
a jury and found guilty. The defendant applied for a 
new trial upon the grounds set forth in his motion, which 
the Court deemed valid and sufficient to entitle him to 
a new hearing. One John P. Sheldon, the publisher of 
the Detroit Gazette, undertook, in his paper, to review 
the grounds upon which the new trial was granted, sup- 
pressing some and misrepresenting other parts of the 
case, and making a very gross and abusive attack upon 
the Judges. The defendant produced the publication 
in Court and moved for a continuance, on the ground 
that the publication was calculated, materially, to im- 
pair his chance for a fair trial at the then present term 
of the Court. The continuance was granted. The of- 
fensive publication being thus brought to the notice of 
the Court, the Attorney General of the Territory there- 
upon filed an Information in Court charging Sheldon 
Avith the publication containing matter injuriously af- 
fecting the rights of a suitor in Court, and "manifestly 
scandalously and contemptuously of and concerning 

*A few copies of the report of the case were published at the time, one of 
Avhich maybe found in the depository of the Historical Society of Michigan, 
in Detroit. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 127 

the Court, its judicial proceedings, and Judges there- 
of." 

On the appearance of Sheldon to answer to the charge, 
he admitted and justified the publication, and in answer 
to interrogatories failed to purge himself of the con- 
tempt, denying the jurisdiction of the court, setting its 
power at defiance, and claiming, under the constitution- 
al guarantee of freedom of the Press, the right to pub- 
lish whatever he believed to be true of the proceedings 
of the court; and in his written argument, read to the 
court, boasted that he had "scourged one set of Judges 
off the Bench and most of them out of the Territory." 

I, in giving my opinion, confined myself principally 
to an exposition of the law of contempts, and reviewed 
the prominent decisions on that subject in England and 
the United States. 

Judge Woodbridge, in his delivered opinion, rested 
mainly in explaining the true grounds and reasons for 
granting the new trial in contrast with the false and dis- 
ingenuous published statement of the respondent, and 
commenting upon the gross errors and mischievous ten- 
dency of the article in question. The conclusion ar- 
rived at was irresistable, and the respondent was sen- 
tenced to pay a fine of one hundred dollars and costs, 
and stand committed till the same was paid. 

The respondent not having come out of the trial with 
the honor and eclat he expected, and though able to pay 
the fine, chose to suffer a voluntary imprisonment, with 
the intent, no doubt, to make his malicious assault upon 
the Judges more effectual by enlisting public sympathy 
in his behalf. Spasmodic efforts were made from time 
to time by the respondent and his little anti-court mob, 
to keep alive the dying excitement, by getting up meet- 



128 THE LIFE OF 

ings in the jail and passing inflammatory resolutions, 
setting on foot a shilling subscription to pay the fine 
and a memorial to the President for the immediate re- 
moval of the Judges. All these efforts proved a total 
failure. 

The movers and abettors of this disreputable affair, 
were so rebuked by the calm but firm action of the 
Court, and the setting of public sentiment against them, 
that they slunk from their vain and mischievous at- 
tempts, and the ephemeral excitement soon died away. 
No similar attempt has been made since, under the Ter- 
ritorial or State Governments of Michigan, to interfere 
with or transfer the duties and proceedings of the law- 
fully constituted judicial authorities to the forum of the 
public Press. 

Judge Woodbridge in his politics was a disciple of the 
Washington school, whose principles he had imbibed in 
early life from his association with the founders of the 
Republic and framers of the federal constitution. He 
was truly national and conservative in his views and 
feelings, and always a devoted friend of the Union. 

He could never stoop to play the political partisan 
for his own advancement or aggrandizement, but always 
carried his political opinions as parts of his private con- 
science and personal integrity, and never allowed a dif- 
ference of political opinion to interfere with his social 
relations or public duties. 

Judge AVoodbridge's judicial term of four years ex- 
pired in one of the first years of General Jackson's 
Administration, at a time when the spirit of party in- 
tolerance seemed to dominate the hour, and the doctrine 
that "to the victors belonged the spoils" was received 
as equally pertinent to the behests of party as to the 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 129 

laws of war, and as Judge Wooclbridge and myself 
were not supporters of General Jackson, our places 
were supplied by favored party suppliants from other 
States. 

But this displacement of Judge Woodbridge did not 
lessen him in the estimation of his fellow-citizens of 
Michigan, who a few years after elected him Governor 
of the State and subsequently a Senator in Congress. 



Our next tribute will conclude this chapter. It was 
written by one who shall be nameless in this place, but 
b,y one who was as competent to give an opinion as to 
his character as any other of his devoted friends : — 

The Veteran Lawyer. 

The Supreme Court, though attended by the evils of 
certiorari^ is not without its corresponding pleasure. On 
the table of the inner Bar, you may observe a large and 
well-worn hat, which rises like a cupola from a mass of 
books and papers around it. That hat bespeaks to the 
young and old members of the Bar a battle in which all 
the heavy artillery of logic and eloquence is to be wield- 
ed. By the side of the table sits its owner, around 
whose temples care and age begin to appear; and as he 
rests his head upon his hand, and raises a large and 
glowing eye upon him who is addressing the Bench, you 
observe a serious yet withal incredulous air, which seems 
to admit the arguments of the speaker as entitled to re- 
spect, but to doubt the principles he has espoused. He 
is marshalling his thoughts, and, though great fire and 
17 



130 THE LIFE OF 

impetuosity are manifested by the rolling eye, yet the 
broad lid, the old brown surtout, and the lines about the 
mouth, show that his ardor has been disciplined by 
study and contact with keen intellects: while, by his 
quiet manner, you perceive that he courts not the con- 
test which is glowing around him. If any thing, he 
seems averse to the conflict. The client is by his side; 
and his calmness and assured air induce you to ask — 
Hotv this is? That seeming indifference is the result of 
many conflicts — it is the composure of him who, though 
not averse to fame, has won too many laurels to be 
greedy of more; who has overthrown so many oppon- 
ents, that he would, if he could, tilt with none. It is 
the air of a veteran black letter lawyer, who, by assid- 
uous study and exhausting thought, has maintained his 
foothold at the Jiead of his profession; and who knows 
that youth, ambition, discipline, experience, and intel- 
lectual vigor are eagerly engaged in disputing with him 
his proud pre-eminence. He knows this, and he wastes 
no gestures, no words, but calmly reserves all his phys- 
ical and mental resources for a field where mind, how- 
ever powerful, must be aided by physical strength. He 
knows how much is required for success at the Bar, and 
could you trace him from his lamp, through his library, 
through his brief, down to the time when he glides into 
court and takes his seat before you, no reason would be 
sought for his jaded air. His opponent has now rested, 
and the apathy begins to dissolve. With a slight cough 
and a half questioning manner, he bows to the court 
and asks if he shall proceed. The young members draw 
up their chairs, the Judges resume their pens, and after 
taking from his pocket his brief he proceeds in reply to 
him who has just closed. You are at a loss to know 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 131 

what are his points, which side even he is going to take, 
and for a moment doubtful whether he is not about to fail 
altogether. But his voice becomes clear, his sigh less 
frequent, and as he steps back from the position first 
assumed, and folds his arms gracefully before him, you 
see the champion putting on the armor for the combat. 
He now starts with some general proposition, and so 
familiar that you at once receive it, accompanied by a 
most fair and apostolic manner, where no guile nor even 
the semblance of artifice appears. There is no rush, no 
bustle, no effort; it is a calm and clear and gradual set 
out, as if to narrate an interesting story, or state an or- 
dinary incident. He goes on, and you are still uncon- 
scious of any thing being taken away from the pile 
which his adversary has built; yet you are interested 
and attentive. The speaker grows a little warmer, and 
at times you perceive some allusion to his opponent's 
remarks, but nothing which looks like the hand to hand 
conflict, where blows are aimed and blows are warded. 
There is no clashing of steel or ringing of cuirass ; there 
seems indeed no enemy before him. He is so frank, so 
cool, so general, so much in the abstract, and yet so engag- 
ing, that what he says is rather the lecture of a Judge 
than the disputation of the polemic. He is traversing 
here, and there ranging through the stores of ancient 
reports, and pouring out volumes of learning and moral 
essays; yet he has no books, no notes to refresh his 
memory, and as yet you wonder how he is to use them. 
But decide not too quickly. His easy and familiar man- 
ner have taken you away from the investigation of his 
argument, as the deep and steady stream hides the force 
of the current which is hurrying you fast from surround- 
ing objects. He calls for a glass of water. You look 



132 THE LIFE OF 

back to the point whence he started, and the pile of his 
adversary's arguments which frowned down upon you 
when near, whose hight seemed beyond your range, and 
depth beyond the memory of man, is now a dim and 
shadowy object; its features, which a moment before 
were bold and strong, are now indistinct and vapory; 
its beauty and strength are lost in the distance. You 
rouse as it were from a spell, and, as he resumes, that 
which was fragmentary now finds its corresponding frag- 
ment, piece to piece. The vague becomes specific, the 
old is by the side of the new — the ethical essay and 
the technical jargon are harmonized, and the whole 
blended together rises up before you, a perfect legal ar- 
gument. It is then that what seemed an interminable 
labyrinth of old and feudal customs, becomes the ave- 
nues to truth, and that from the Gothic arches and an- 
tiquated institutions of the past, the full light of law 
and reason stream down to illuminate, explain, and make 
clear the present; it is then, too, that you really begin 
to appreciate the speaker's power, and to forget in his 
expositions, analogies, and amplifications all that has 
been said by his antagonist; in a word, you are con- 
vinced — how or why you care not — you feel the fact, 
and are content. Space Avill not allow me to dwell up- 
on his other peculiarities, particularly his illustrations 
drawn from men and things, when questions involving 
the immediate liberty or reputation of the parties are at 
stake. To such he brings not only the learning of the 
past but that of the present, with an experience of his 
own filled to overflowing. lie has read deeply from 
books — also from men; and when the occasion justifies 
his touching upon the chords of the human heart, no 
man sweeps them with a more masterly hand. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 133 

Such are a few of the many traits, which characterize 
William Woodbridge's legal efforts; and as he leaves 
the court room, with his books tied up in his red hand- 
kerchief, you know that the Bar for that day has lost 
one of its brightest ornaments. But it is not solely 
our purpose to speak of him as an able lawyer. He 
has won laurels in the councils of his country, and 
whether advocating the claims of our infant Territory in 
Congress, or enforcing our rights to our soil, or dispen- 
sing the duties of acting Governor, moulding the free 
principles of seventy-six to our State Constitution, or op- 
posing in our Legislature the aggressions of power, and 
staying the waste of money, and rebuking the insolence 
of office ; in all and each, he has evinced that fearless- 
ness and independence, that stern regard for the best 
interests of his country; commanding talents combined 
with personal dignity, and a high sense of duty, which 
constituted him the chief ornament of our State. To 
these add the virtues of the man, with the modesty which 
has kept him back from the public gaze, unless called 
out by the Executive of the nation, or the voice of his 
fellow-citizens. Of him it can be said, that he has 
never in any one instance sought an office; to him, 
therefore, we hope our State will tender her highest 
honors. 

It is true William Woodbridge has his enemies; and 
what man of either patroitism or genius was ever with- 
out them? They are to such as shadows to the lights 
of a picture, and serve only to bring its beauties into 
full and high relief. We call him a patriot, his whole 
life shows it, and we point to him from the day, when, 
as a young applicant for the honors of his profession, he 
advanced opinions contrary to those of the Bench before 



134: THE LIFE OF 

whom he .stood, and received the sanction of their truth 
from the highest tribunal of Virginia to which that 
Bench appealed. Everywhere whether as Legislator in 
Ohio, as Collector, Judge, or Secretary of the Territory 
of Michigan under Madison, Monroe, and Adams, has he 
enjoyed the confidence of the wise men of his country. 
We have therefore, in these times thought it our duty, 
to place him in contrast with the pigmy politicians of the 
day. True, our State's best interests call for the exhi- 
bition, and relying upon the capacity of human nature, 
to judge of the good and true, we have made the trial, 
feeling confident that with capacity to judge, is a will- 
ingness to reward. 

We have styled him a man of genius, — if a vivid per- 
ception of truth, and a fervid exhibition of it; if origi- 
nality and a mental independence in embracing a sub- 
ject and expounding it; if felicity of language as a 
writer or an advocate, and a commanding influence 
over the reason of those in every station, and the elec- 
trical power of communicating to others his views, to 
the exclusion of their own previously formed opinions; 
united to an enthusiasm which regards no toil, when in 
search of a noble end; if these are evidences of that 
high quality, then none will deny to him its full pos- 
session. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 135 



CHAPTER XII. 

It is not proposed, as stated at the commencement of 
chapter ten, to publish in full the private correspon- 
dence of Mr. Woodbridge with his family, but the edi- 
tor must be indulged for submitting as specimens, 
the following extracts from letters addressed to his 
daughter, and a nephew, and with which he will con- 
clude this unpretending memorial of his departed 
friend : — 

Springwells, (near Detroit,) 

August 7, 1835. 
My dear Daughter: — This is the season for the 
cholera. If it comes this year it will soon make its ap- 
pearance, and in crowded cities and on steamboats and 
canalboats first. Rumor is very busy, and has already 
located it in many places. But rumor is a liar, and is 
sometimes not believed when she speaks the truth. It is 
necessary for your brother and for yourself to be 
vigilant in this matter, but without credulity. Listen 
to what you hear, learn to put things together, seek to 
detect error and without fool-hardiness on the one side 
and credulous apprehension on the other, try coolly to 
deduce from circumstances correct conclusions. Though 
I do not apprehend that this disorder is contagious (i. e. 



136 THE LIFE OF 

caught by contact,) yet I am much inclined to think 
that it is so far infectious as that a person whose habit 
and state of health predispose him to take it, may 
receive it through the medium of an infected atmos- 
phere. I would not have you needlessly expose your- 
self therefore, to its infection by remaining in a crowd- 
ed population where it exists ; still less would I have 
you needlessly cooped up in a crowded cabin among 
those who have it, or where it has recently been. 
When, on your return, it will be safe and proper for 
your brother to make all proper inquiries as to its prob- 
able existence in the towns through which you may 
pass, and if to an alarming extent it should pre- 
vail, seek to avoid those boats or those towns in which 
it may have so prevailed. This can generally be done. 
For instance should it appear by authentic accounts to 
prevail in Schenectady, Utica, or Rochester, or Buffalo, 
you might land at Newburgh, (avoiding Albany,) and 
take the stage for Ithica (a pleasant town at the south 
extreme of Cayuga Lake) and thence by the stage, or 
more pleasantly, if there be one on that Lake, in a 
steamboat to the bridge near Geneva, where you would 
intersect the main stage route through Canandaigua to 
Buffalo. Or, if it should prevail badly along the main 
stage route from Geneva to Buffalo, and if there be 
stages from Ithica to Erie, (a fact I do not know,) then 
you might continue in that mountain course through or 
near Chatuque perhaps, to the lake shore near or at 
Erie. Of all these things, however, you and your bro- 
ther must judge according to circumstances. For after 
all, remember that if such be the providence of God, 
more, much more will depend upon your own close re- 
yard of your own health, with a view properly to regu- 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 137 

late your diet, etc., than upon any other thing relating 
to that disorder. Don't suffer yourself to be frightened 
(indeed I feel confident that you will not,) but on the 
first approach of any thing like diarrhoea, instantly seek 
to check it, by refraining from fruit (unripe fruit never 
eat) and from such vegetables as would increase it; eat 
more moderately, being careful not to overload your stom- 
ach; while you seek a pure atmosphere, avoid both the 
hot sun and the evening dampness, and all violent exer- 
cise; keep laudanum about you, and according to the 
exigency don t fail to use it, avoiding extremes. Of the 
usefulness of rice you are aware. I have steadily in- 
dulged the belief that by such like precautions, and with- 
out too great a change either in that food to which we 
are accustomed, this terrible disease may be deemed 
perhaps more within the control of human means than 
most others. % 

These observations, my dear daughter, are meant for 
your brother as well as you, and I wish that neither of 
you fail seriously to reflect upon them. In the mean 
time, if this letter should find you without your brother, 
if he should be still with Mr. B., and if you should find 
yourself threatened seriously with an attack of it, then 
through the aid of your cousin, or her husband, or Mr. 
W., without any scruples or too much delay, either get 
on board the steamboat for Norwich or go directly to 
aunt B.'s. When I was with you in New York you 
did not yourself know how imposing were my own 
symptoms of that disorder. I was myself surprised at 
the beneficial and the sudden effect, in removing them, 
of the dry and pure mountain atmosphere we breathed 
at aunt B.'s. In such an event, (not likely I trust to 
happen,) but in such event, you will of course take the 
18 



138 THE LIFE OF 

proper measures to advise your brother of your course, 
and where you are. We were very glad to receive 
your letter from Philadelphia. It came in good time 
and relieved us from much anxiety. We should have 
liked it still better if you had given us a more detailed 
account of all things. 



i &- 



Yours affectionately, 

Wm. Woodbridge. 



Washington, January 5, 1842. 
My dear Daughter: — Your welcome letter of the 
10th ult. reached me in due time. I read with much 
interest your remarks on the altered state of things you 
anticipated when you thought of the then- approaching 
Christmas. Contrasted with such as are past, rarely 
indeed, if ever, has it happened that a Christmas has 
gone by without seeing us all together; and there is 
something grave in the thought that at length, and for 
the first time, that day of. customary hilarity should be 
decreed to pass by in the absence of one who loves you, 
and loves you all I do. But it is perhaps better as it 
is; better that we all should learn by degrees and with 
contented, though subdued feelings, to submit ourselves 
to the decrees of Providence. Though the day was not 
untinged by melancholy to me, yet it passed amidst the 
bustle of u carding and being carded," and all that with 
sober and unruffled quiet. With you at home, it fared 
I trust a little better. My last letter was form L., and 
on "Christmas eve." The stockings had with all due 
formality been hung up, and you and W. and 13. were 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 139 

to have added to the cheerfulness of the occasion by 
joining in the Christmas dinner. This is as it should 
be, and many times and often may "Merry Christmas" 
recur to all who at that table met. I sent a little pic- 
ture book to little W. as a memorial that I thought of 
him on New Year's Day, and I regretted that I too 
could not have joined in the filling of the Christmas 
stockings. The new year opened upon us all bright and 
cheering in the natural world, but with a heavy cloud 
of gloom, and uncertainty, and discouragement politically. 
Our destinies as a nation as well as individually, are in 
the hands of an invisible but Overruling Power. May 
that Power in its mercy so direct our feeble counsels as 
once more to restore to our erring and deluded fellow- 
citizens that prosperity and happiness which seem so 
nearly to have deserted the land. I read that portion 
of your letter, my dear daughter, in which you relate 
the incidents of Mr. Duffield's casual visit, with deep 
interest, and more than one involuntary tear obscured 
my sight as I read and felt the scope of his prayer. 
Adieu, my dear daughter; deal out largely to all at 
home the blessings I would invoke upon them, and that 
many and many a happy New Year may be in store to 
bless them each and collectively. 

Your affectionate father, 

Wm. Woodbridge. 



Washington, July 18, 1842. 
Dear Daughter: — I found on my table in the "Clem- 
ent House" the letter from Mr. Wood, postmarked the 
eleventh, and hastened to enclose it under cover to L, 



140 THE LIFE OF 

at the Eutaw House, and to put it into the letter box, 
although I knew the mail would not go for many hours 
after. Don't fail to write to me even if it be but a half 
dozen lines. I do not wish to tax you too much, but I 
should be glad to hear of you every day, and never for 
a moment forget that I am but two hours ride from you, 
and if any thing in the smallest degree unpleasant hap- 
pen to you, do not of all things fail to advise me in- 
stantly. Tell me where you live, at whose house, in 
what street, and what number. I can go to you in two 
hours, you know; and the cars start in the morning at 
five, in the evening at four, and at night at two, so do 
not suffer yourself to feel alone. Tell me if you want 
me to get and send you any books. When I go next I 
shall bring to you any in the library, if I could know 
what you want to read. 

And remember always to keep me constantly advised 
of your feelings, and always remember how 
Affectionately I am yours, 

Wm. Woodbridge. 



Washington, Saturday Evening, 

February 4, 1843. 
My dear Daughter : 

:■: * :=: # # -U 

JJut. yet we know but little of ourselves — we are in- 
deed "wonderfully and fearfully made" — and so far as 
the limited and imperfect lights of mere human reason 
can enable us to judge, it must seem rather matter for 
continual wonder that we can be kept alive at all. For 
wise purposes we are all subject to disease, and our 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 141 

duty is satisfied by using, with discretion and firmness, 
such means as our best judgment may approve, and 
such as a beneficient city may have placed within our 
reach; and after all, trust all to the Providence of that 
God without whom we cannot live at all ; hoping 
always, as we always ought to do, for the best. 

You ask me my opinion of "mesmerism?" of the 
theory and the science of this strange and wild system? 
I know nothing from personal observation. I am not, 
therefore capable of viewing it fairly, nor of forming 
any very decisive opinion about it. I have known so 
much however of the juggleries and of the wild fantasies 
of this world; I have seen so much of delusion and won- 
derful fanaticism and hopeless infatuation in it, that I 
have become habitually jealous and wanting in faith 
in all such matters. The most intelligent, in common 
with the thoughtless and the ignorant, are subject in all 
ages of the world to strange and wild delusions; we 
ought to be cautious and war?/ lest we should be led 
into such as may lead to fatal mistakes and to unthought 
of mischief, for our faith we are taught to feel ourselves 
accountable, as well as for our actions. 

Now, so far as I have heard anything of this neiv 
doctrine, or perhaps I should rather say old doctrine 
lately revived, I should be fearful of believing in it, lest 
it should unsettle our faith in the truth of Christianity. 
The clairvoyance of which its disciples speak, I under- 
stand they impute to a mysterious communication with, 
and action upon our mental faculties, our perceptions, our 
consciousness, our will by some by-stander, some other 
human being capable of infusing his will, his conscious- 
ness, his perceptions and faith into us; and we are then 
the involuntary agents of his will, we see as he sees, we 



142 THE LIFE OF 

believe as he believes, and whether we Avill or not we 
act accordingly. If this be so, where then is our respon- 
sibility for our faith, our own actions ? Then again it 
seems to me that their doctrines lead directly to what 
is called materialism, i. e. (as I understand the term) to 
the belief that the body and the soul are one; that the 
soul has no existence separate from the body, and by 
consequence both are immortal, or neither! Now I do 
not so understand the doctrine of the Scriptures. I say 
it seems to me to lead to "materialism" because the 
nervous fluid, or that strange magnetic substance what- 
ever it is, seems by their explanations or system to 
constitute both the source of action and the effect, 
speaking both intellectually and physically. Upon the 
whole, I do not feel disposed dogmatically to condemn, 
but I certainly am much further from approving or be- 
lieving in these strange vagaries. Some gentlemen 
here has told me that this is only an old fashioned 
theory now renewed, and that in Reese's Cyclopedia, 
under the head "Imagination," some traits may be 
found; among others, I believe, some paper from Doctor 
Franklin which has relation to it. I have been inter- 
rupted; my time for sending to the mail has arrived, 
and my paper you perceive is nearly exhausted. Give 
my love to all, and believe me, 

Yours affectionately, 

Wm. Woodbridge. 



The following letter was written to J. M. Woodbridge, 
Marietta, Ohio, on the death of his father, Dudley 
Woodbridge: — 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 143 

Detroit, April 9, 1853. 

I thank you much, my dear nephew, for the melan- 
choly but interesting details you have given me concern- 
ing your most excellent father. Your first two notes 
of the twenty-fifth and twenty-seventh ultimo, reached 
me together on Saturday, the second. Small ground of 
hope as there was, that I could see him alive, I should 
nevertheless have set out for Marietta at the moment, 
but that I had been confined to my room during several 
weeks by severe illness, and could not have endured the 
exposure. Your final letter of the third reached me on 
the seventh, and for all earthly aspirations closed the 
scene. I would condole with you and with your mother 
and brothers and sisters, for the great loss you have 
sustained. The watchful care, the tender solicitude, 
the fervent counsels of this earthly guardian no longer 
shield you from evil, provide for your wants, nor extend 
over you the mantle of his protection. 

On such occasions it is permitted to grieve ; neverthe- 
less the occasion furnishes likewise sources of consola- 
tion which must not be forgotten. You have vividly 
before you his bright example. Let us all strive to fol- 
low it, that we may be better and happier here and 
hereafter, and thus do not cease to feel that his loss is 
your gain ! This is a world of trials, of troubles, and 
of pain. He has passed from it to one "where the 
wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest." 
He has passed through the ordeal, and proved himself 
faithful to the end! He has fought the good fight and 
who can measure the unutterable happiness of the 
change ! I, too, loved your father deeply, ardently, no- 
body can tell how much ! In your affliction, therefore, 
I have a right to sympathize — not for his sake surely, 



]44 THE LIFE OF 

but for ours. But we are admonished that cheerful sub- 
mission to the will of God is our bounden duty. Let us 
strive therefore to moderate our grief. Many things 
will pass from my memory, but while I remember any 
thing, one scene I cannot forget! — I cannot forget the 
appearance of your father the last time I saw him at his 
own house. He was in the midst of his family — at his 
evening devotions. The earnestness and beauty of his 
prayer, the touching pathos of his tone and manner, and 
the fervency and eloquence of that outpouring of his 
heart to God, altogether constituted a scene of such 
moral beauty and grandeur as I had never witnessed — 
such as I cannot think of without great emotion. Neith- 
er time nor distance has weakened that deep impression. 
But I shall witness it no more on earth ! 
Adieu, my dear nephew. Yours, 

W. WOODBRIDGE. 



Detroit, June 25, 1861. 
John M. Wood-bridge, Esq., 
Marietta. 
My dear John : — I have received and read with much 
interest your brief but welcome letter of the seventh 
instant. I thank you for it. It would have been yet 
more grateful to me, if it had contained some account 
of the welfare of all at home. Tender, I pray you, to 
your mother and all your brothers and sisters, my ear- 
nest and affectionate regard. I owe to your excellent 
sister Maria a reply to her last kind letter to me. I 
purpose to write, it is true — but hitherto I have lacked 
aU courage, all energy to fulfil the duties which the pro- 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 145 

prieties of life, as well as the injunctions of affection, 
require. From your warm-hearted brother George I 
have not heard a long while : nor have I heard of the 
well being of her whose patronymic alone would com- 
mend her to my earnest remembrance, independent of 
her own and inherent good qualities. The last I heard 
of Mr. Smith, the knight-errant her husband, he was 
on his travels. I hope he has not been delivered over 
to the tender mercies of the Texan "secessionists!" 

I was much pleased with your short, pointed, and hand- 
some little address to Col. Steedman of your 14th Regi- 
ment. In all respects it was appropriate, just, and suit- 
able to the occasion. Your allusion to the "Plymouth 
Rock" was particularly gratifying to me. In efforts of 
this sort, we are too apt to be diffuse. Plethora, in such 
productions, is the characteristic fault of our public 
speakers. "Brevity" is said to be "the soul of wit." 
In such efforts, especially, it is so. But yet that very 
"brevity" may become a blemish, if it tend to obscurity. 
To those who are familiarly conversant with the early 
history of Marietta, for example, the allusion to the 
"Plymouth Rock" is both beautiful and apt. But I 
should fear that but few of that 14th Regiment could 
have realized its appropriateness and force. How few 
they probably were, of that 14th Regiment, who were 
familiarly conversant with the early history of your 
beautiful place ! How few who knew, that the first col- 
onial establishment of the great North West was there; 
and that those colonists — nineteenth's of them — were 
lineal descendants of that "Puritan stock" which, for 
the enjoyment of that religious and 'political freedom which 
they loved, left their mother-country and settled in a 
dreary wilderness! How few that knew, that these 
19 



146 THE LIFE 0F 

colonists of Marietta consisted, by far the greater part 
of them, of the worn and veteran and ivounded remnants 
from New England of the armies of the Revolution! 
and who, during their long struggle in war, had at length 
become almost strangers to their own New England! 
And how few too who knew, that that colony of worn- 
out Puritan soldiers had descended the Ohio River for 
the greater part in that Gondola which, from respect to 
the memory of their patriotic and liberty-loving ances- 
tors, they had called "The May Flower!"— Such is the 
course of thought your allusion to the "Plymouth Rock" 
recalls to the mind of those at least who can feel the 
force of the allusion! 

For me, your brief allusion is all sufficient: to those 
who are yet more ignorant than I am of that early his- 
tory, a little more detail, a little more amplification would 
not, I think, have been out of place. 

I thank you, my friend, for your kind expression of 
sympathy for me in my afflictions and loneliness of feel- 
ing. What further evils or other events are in store for 
me I, of course, know not, nor do I strive irreverently 
to pierce the clouds of uncertainty and of sorrow which 
obscure my earthly view. I endeavor, and shall endea- 
vor to meet the appointments of God with submission, 
humility, and reverence! If I should hereafter find, 
while I still live, the want of that aid you kindly offer 
to me, and that the soothing influences of your assist- 
ance should be particularly desirable, I will not fail, I 
think, to express to you, or to your more erratic but 
true-hearted brother George, my wishes and my hopes, 
in this regard. Mean time, tendering to all at home my 
affectionate remembrance, I remain very truly, 

Your affectionate uncle, Wm. Woodbridge. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 147 

P. S. — Should the wars of western Virginia at all 
approach your shores, please advise me of the march of 
events as well as of existing probabilities. Though 
absorbed, perhaps too much, by the contemplation of my 
own sorrows and infirmities — my own inefficiencies, and 
aches, and decrepitude; yet I find time and space for 
the contemplation of the great evils which, as a nation, 
are upon us ! By reason of the wickedness of the land, 
the rod of chastisement is upon us ! But I trust and 
hope that out of these great evils good may come! I 
trust and believe that this wicked insurrection may be 
crushed. That its arrogant instigators may be shorn of 
their power and be humbled — and that purified, in some 
degree at least, by this heavy chastisement from the in- 
fluences of its great wickedness as a People, this nation 
may be restored to reason and to virtue — to soberness 
and to prosperity! 



ADDENDA. 



LITERARY ADDRESSES 



The original idea of appending to this volume the ad- 
dresses, messages, and speeches which were delivered 
by Mr. Woodbridge, has been abandoned, because it 
was found that they would, by themselves, make a 
large volume, and such an one will probably be pub- 
lished hereafter. For the benefit of those who may 
wish to consult them, it may be stated that while the 
messages are on file among the archives of Michigan, 
the speeches delivered in Congress will be found duly 
reported in the annals of Congress and the Congressional 
Globe. The leading efforts alluded to above are as 
follows : — 

Inaugural Address as Governor. 
Message as Governor on the Affairs of Michigan. 
Message on the Distribution of the Public Lands. 
Last Annual Message as Governor. 



150 TIIE LIFE 0F 

Speech in the Senate on the Land Distribution Bill. 
Speech in the Senate on Internal Improvements. 
Speech in the Senate on the Right of Instruction. 
Speech in the Senate on Public Lands and Internal 
Improvements. 

American Sentiment. 

By way, however, of further illustrating Mr. Wood- 
bridge's style and manner of thought, it has been deter- 
mined to lay before the readers of this volume the three 
following efforts from his pen; and as they treat of 
topics of general interest, it is believed they will be read 
with pleasure. 



AN ADDRESS 
Delivered before The Neiv England Society of Michigan, 



December 22, 1847. 



[Note. — The Executive Committee of the New Eng- 
land Society of Michigan, being instructed by the socie- 
ty to request of Governor Woodbridge a copy of his 
address delivered before them, for publication, received 
in reply to the note which they addressed him, the copy 
requested, with the following letter: 

Springwells, (near Detroit,) Jan. 6, 1849. 
To Messrs. J. M. Howard, E. Farnsworth, W. A. Ray- 
mond, John Chester, and W. A. Bacon, Executive 
Committee, etc. etc. 

Gentlemen: — Your note of the date of the twenty- 
sixth ultimo, requesting a copy of the address which I 
delivered at the anniversary meeting of the "New Eng- 



WILLIAM W0ODBR1DGE. 151 

land Society," in December, 1847, has been received: 
and in pursuance of the request contained in it, I have 
the honor herewith to transmit it. A slight examina- 
tion of the manuscript will show, that it falls entirely 
short of the plan indicated in it; leaving untouched 
many topics, a review of which was manifestly contem- 
plated, but which could not have been accomplished, 
without making the address offensively long. This im- 
perfection was sought, in part to be remedied, in an ad- 
dress subsequently delivered before the "Detroit Young 
Mens' Society." And the fact is alluded to here in the 
hope that an apology may be found in it, for the mani- 
fest incompleteness of the manuscript now transmitted. 

Be pleased, gentlemen, to accept for yourselves my 
acknowledgements for the courteous terms in which you 
have been pleased to make known to me the wishes of 
the Society : — and believe me to be, very respectfully, 
Your obedient servant, 

Wm. Woodbridge.] 



Gentlemen of the "New England Society:" 

A stranger to the details of our early history would 
be very naturally tempted to enquire, why such an asso- 
ciation as this has been formed? If it be to celebrate 
the landing of a small body of adventurers upon the 
cold and cheerless shores of New England, some two 
hundred years or more ago, why thus distinguish the 
event from other migrations of more recent times? 
Was it that in character, in purposes, or in circum- 
stances, they were so unlike? What manner of men 
then were they whose arrival on a newly discovered 



152 THE LIFE OF 

continent, we would thus commemorate? What was 
there peculiar in the circumstances out of which their 
expedition grew ? and what very extraordinary conse- 
quences have resulted from their bold and perilous ad- 
venture ? 

These, gentlemen, are questions a stranger may well 
put; but which the occasion does not require me here 
to dwell upon. I am addressing sons of New England : 
I am addressing those who are familiar with the prolific 
story of the "Pilgrim Fathers!" Those who have heard 
of the exemplary piety of those dauntless Christians, 
and of their high intellectual and moral worth: who 
have learned something of their character, of their pur- 
poses, of the wrongs practised upon them, of their perils 
and sufferings, and of their indomitable courage. The 
copious annals of New England, to which I must pre- 
sume you have had access, will have informed you of 
their history in graphic detail, and of the subsequent 
and eventful story of their true-hearted descendants, 
down to the period when the relations that bound them 
to the mother-country were merged, dissolved, lost for- 
ever, in blood ! You will not expect nor desire that in 
the brief remarks to which the propriety of the occa- 
sion seems to limit me, I should place in review before 
you many details illustrative of the topics to which 
those questions point; nor attempt to group together, 
in a connected series, even all those leading events 
which mark the trials, the struggles, and the progress 
of the early Colonists of our " Fatherland !" 

But there are circumstances, having relation to the 
general subject, which from their peculiarity, although 
known, may yet bear repetition; and there are incidents 
too, scattered here and there upon the records of time, 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 153 

which, in so far as they may tend to display the charac- 
ter, and vindicate more fully the purposes, the principles, 
and the institutions of the Founders of New England, 
it may be profitable for us to contemplate with renewed 
attention ; for those purposes, principles, and institutions, 
casting their influences into the future, have in a great 
degree given character to the actual condition of society 
among us, and impressed deeply upon the foundations 
of our onward destiny bold lineaments of that well reg- 
ulated political Freedom all profess to admire. To 
some of these incidents and circumstances I desire to 
advert, and propose to limit the few discursive remarks 
which it may remain for me to make, to that more hum- 
ble purpose. 

It was in the month of November, 1620, that the 
May-Flower, with its care-worn colonists, approached a 
part of the New Continent then utterly unknown to 
them, and far north of their intended point of debarca- 
tion. From that intended point the weather-beaten 
vessel had been intentionally and widely diverted, as his- 
torians assert, by the treachery and the bribery of the 
mercenary captain. The devoted pilgrims then saw be- 
fore them, not the country which had been described to 
them, nor that which their imaginations had depicted, 
but the bleak, the unexplored, the repulsive and broken 
coasts of that which is New England now. Storms had 
arisen, the cold was piercing, the harbor was too shal- 
low for their vessel to approach the shore; all were 
strangers to the inhospitable coast! It was not until 
the twenty-second of December, of the same year, that, 
through fearful perils and extreme suffering, they ef- 
fected a landing upon that "Plymouth Hock," to which, 
all unconscious, their landing was destined, in after- 
20 



154 THE LIFE OF 

times, to give so much celebrity! The event consti- 
tutes indeed an epoch which no historian will pass over 
in silence; an epoch which the philosophic statesman 
will not fail to contemplate, when, as from a high emi- 
nence, he looks upon the past, and upon the present, 
and traces far into the future the working of those 
moral and political causes which had their humble 
origin there ! An epoch which has furnished, and will 
again and again furnish to the patriot, ample materials 
for whatever is admonitory in the past and cheering in 
the future; and for whatsoever is eloquent, and capti- 
vating, and powerful in the oratory which he wields ! 
An epoch which the accomplished statuary has already 
signalized, and which the painter has made the subject 
of the most unique, and touching, and beautiful of all 
the magnificent paintings with which genius and skill 
have so appropriately adorned the panels of the national 
Capitol ! 

Influenced by the high consideration in which these 
founders of New England are now, with one accord, and 
confessedly holden by all, the inquisitive stranger will 
seek to acquire some knowledge of their early history. 
His attention will at once be arrested by the disclosure 
of the smallness of their numbers and the paucity of 
their means, when compared with the obstacles to be 
surmounted and the great purposes they had in view. 
Historians inform us, that their whole number, compre- 
hending men, women, and children, did not exceed one 
hundred and one, and that their means, aided by a fair 
but moderate amount of wealth, consisted in their dis- 
tinguished intelligence and well-balanced minds, in their 
stoutness of heart and firmness of purpose, and in that 
trust in the protection of Providence which had never 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 155 

before, in any exigency, deserted them ! The work he- 
fore them was to sit down by the side of the wild and 
ferocious savages of that wilderness, and by their pur- 
chased or enforced consent to found there a distinct 
community, a new Empire! So obviously inadequate 
to the end, will such numbers and such means appear to 
him that he will surely be led to doubt of the fidelity of 
the annalist. He will strongly suspect that other causes 
impelled them ! Did they, indeed, voluntarily leave the 
cultivated fields and the peaceful firesides of their fath- 
ers, in order, with such numbers and with such means, 
to give effect to a project so bold, so manifestly vision- 
ary? Were they not rather outcasts from the society 
in which they were reared, and exiled by the justice of 
the violated law? or were they of disordered intellect, 
Avild enthusiasts spurning the reasonable counsels of 
ordinary prudence, mere monomaniacs'! Posterity, gen- 
tlemen, will not judge so harshly of them! Driven they 
may have been from the country of their birth, but it 
was by the tyrannical oppressions of the House of 
Stuart? They came not from the chambers of the 
guilty, nor from the redundent outpourings of the poor- 
house ; nor yet from the lunatic asylums of the mother- 
country ! But emanating from the virtuous and the most 
enlightened of the distracted community which they 
left, and where their sympathies still lingered, they came 
to form a community of their own. They came that 
they might secure to themselves and to their posterity, 
the blessings of wise and happy institutions. They 
came that they might lay broad and deep, the founda- 
tions of that enlightened, virtuous, and well ordered 
freedom which they loved; or else, and if it should be 
so directed by the over-ruling providence of the God 



156 THE LIFE OF 

whom they adored, that they might suffer and die mar- 
tyrs in so holy a cause ! It was in truth the crowning 
effort of men who, spuming the arrogant dictation of 
the minions of an arbitrary monarch, had determined, 
having weighed all consequences, thus to remove them- 
selves beyond the reach of a power so intolerant, and of 
machinations so ignoble and debasing ! 

Nor did this small band of Pilgrims stand so entirely 
alone in the principles they avouched and in the reso- 
lutions they had formed, as may be imagined. The 
sympathies of the great body of their countrymen were 
with them ; and there appears no doubt but that thou- 
sands speaking the same language, the descendants of 
a common ancestry, and standing by the same religious 
and political faith, had resolved to incur the same haz- 
ards, to submit to the same sacrifices, and to share the 
same destiny that should await their brothers in the 
new world! If these promised coadjutors had been 
permitted to execute their settled purpose, and thus to 
have added so greatly to the moral and physical strength 
of the colonists, while in the very crisis of their affairs, 
who would have deemed their project an idle fancy? or 
that its final success was involved in so much doubt? 
But, their countrymen were not pcrmiHed to execute 
their purpose. Some relief indeed had been extended 
to the colonists, and accessions to their numbers had 
been made during the first and several succeeding years 
after their arrival. But these shipments were made 
principally, it is believed, in vessels sailing direct from 
Eolland, or other parts of the continent, where many 
of their countrymen had found temporary refuge, pre- 
paratory to their final embarca'tion. In the mean time, 
the first Charles had succeeded to the throne of his 



WILLIAM WOODBEIDGE. 157 

father. It is not my purpose to dwell upon the vices 
or the foibles of this unhappy Prince. If they were 
numerous, or great, they were expiated upon the scaf- 
fold! But I may be permitted to say, that he was edu- 
cated to believe that his authority zvas above the Laiv, 
and absolute ! That there was no limit to the power of 
the crown, but the will of the reigning monarch ! That 
private property, personal liberty, the opinions even of 
his people, were all subjects of his rightful control! He 
sought to rule without Parliaments. He sought to levy 
and collect taxes by his own unsanctioned authority. 
There never was a period perhaps, when the liberties 
of England were in so imminent danger! At such a 
period — when nothing but debasing slavery, both polit- 
ical and religious, on the one hand, or fearful revolu- 
tions and a civil war of uncertain duration and of doubt- 
ful success, on the other, were pending over their ill- 
fated country — multitudes of its people were seeking in 
voluntary exile, that quietude and freedom which seemed 
forever denied to them at home. New settlements were 
formed in.Massachusetts, in Connecticut, and elsewhere ; 
and that of New Plymouth greatly strengthened and 
increased, while every indication promised a rapid and 
a happy growth to them all! It was in this condition 
of things that the capricious and infatuated monarch, 
pursuing the mad and fitful counsels of his demented 
advisers, expressly and without law inhibited the fur- 
ther migration of his subjects to New England. Allud- 
ing to this pregnant fact, Hume, the eloquent historian, 
but the apologist of the House of Stuart, and the pow- 
erful advocate of arbitrary government, thus expresses 
himself: — " The Puritans, restrained in England, shipped 
themselves off to America, and laid there the founda- 



158 THE LIFE OF 

tions of a government which possessed all the liberty, 
both civil and religious, of which they found themselves 
bereaved in their native country. But their enemies, 
unwilling that they should anywhere enjoy ease and con- 
tentment, and dreading perhaps the dangerous conse- 
quences of so disaffected a colony, prevailed on the 
King to issue a proclamation, debarring these devotees 
access even into those inhospitable deserts. Eight ships, 
lying in the Thames, and ready to sail, were detained by 
order of the Council, and in these were embarked among 
others Sir Arthur Hazelrig, John Hampden, John Pym, 
and Oliver Cromwell, who had resolved forever to abandon 
their native country, and fly to the other extremity of 
the globe, where they might enjoy lectures and dis- 
courses of any length or form which pleased them." He 
then adds the very significant remark, that the " King 
had afterwards full leisure to repent this exercise of his 
authority!" It constitutes no part of my purpose, gen- 
tlemen, to detain you by elaborate comments upon the 
lives or qualities of these eminently great men. Yet 
some reference to them seems called for by the connec- 
tion in which they are named by the historian, and es- 
pecially by the character which they reflect upon those 
companions whom they wished to join. What space they 
would have occupied in the history of the times if, with 
their numerous associates, they had not been thwarted 
in their peaceful and legitimate purpose of uniting them- 
selves with their friends of the " Plymouth Rock," may 
be left to conjecture. But that in their respective 
spheres, they afterwards exerted a most controlling in- 
fluence in the affairs of the nation at home, is abundant- 
ly established. Their associations had always been 
with the Patriot Party. Being forcibly shut out from 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 159 

that asylum in the new world they had sought, and be- 
ing men of easy fortunes, they appear afterwards to 
have devoted themselves more exclusively to public af- 
fairs; and it is not unreasonable to suppose that on 
their return to public life they may have taken with 
them more of bitterness against the court by reason of 
their sense of the high-handed injustice which had been 
practiced upon them. Of Mr. Pym, I think it may be 
truly said, that the sincerity of his professions was nev- 
er brought into doubt. Uniformly opposed to the high 
pretentions and arbitrary measures of the court, English 
Liberty had not in those times of commotion and peril 
a more constant, sagacious, and successful vindicator in 
Parliament than John Pym. Immediately after his 
premeditated exile was prevented in the manner related, 
his name appears associated with that constellation of 
great men, members of the House of Commons, who in 
those troublous times fashioned the course and controlled 
the counsels of that House, in which was embodied the 
concentrated and terrific power of the Commons of Eng- 
land. For many years he continued there, faithful to 
the high trusts confided to him, a distinguished member. 
Neither the allurements of the court, nor fear of its vin- 
dictive power, nor the fitful and intemperate zeal which 
occasionally marked the course of the Commons, could 
ever disarm his vigilance, or despoil him of his patriot- 
ism and of his cool, calculating sagacity! He was a 
man of "large discourse, looking before and after." 

Of John Hampden I do not know how to speak, lest 
on the one hand I should fail to render that ample tribute 
of commendation to the history and character of so emi- 
nently great and good a man, which is so justly due, or on 
the other, lest I should offend against your patience and 



TOO TITE LIFE OF 

unwittingly draw too largely upon your indulgent atten- 
tion. Seeking to avoid these difficulties on either hand, 
I propose then, gentlemen, simply to solicit your consider- 
ation of a few comments upon his course and character, 
made by the same eloquent historian to whom I have 
already referred ; being well aware that even the meager 
praise of a writer whose sympathies were so notoriously 
with the House of Stuart, when bestowed upon one of 
the most formidable opponents of its encroachments upon 
the public liberties, is entitled to peculiar weight. Mr. 
Hume says that "this year" (1G37, or some time after 
his intended voyage to New England was so inconsider- 
ately arrested) "John Hampden acquired by his spirit 
and courage universal popularity throughout the nation, 
and has merited great renown with posterity for the 
bold stand which he made in defense of the laws and 
liberties of his country. After the imposing of ship 
money, Charles, in order to discourage all opposition, had 
proposed this question to the judges : 'Whether in case 
of necessity, for the defense of the Kingdom, he might 
not impose this taxation, and whether he were not the 
sole judge of the necessity?' 'These guardians of law 
and liberty replied, with great complaisance, that in case 
of necessity he might impose that taxation, and that he 
was sole judge of the necessity.' Hampden had been 
rated at twenty shillings for an estate which he posses- 
sed in Buckingham; yet, notwithstanding this declared 
opinion of the Judges, notwithstanding the great power 
and sometimes rigorous maxims of the crown, notwith- 
standing the small prospect of relief from Parliament, he 
resolved, rather than lamely submit to so illegal an im- 
position, to stand a legal prosecution and expose him- 
self to all the indignation of the court. The case was 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGK. 1G1 

argued during twelve days, in the Exchequer Chamber, 
before all the Judges of England, and the nation re- 
garded with the utmost anxiety every circumstance of 
this celebrated trial. The event was easily foreseen; 
but the principles and reasonings, and behavior of the 
parties engaged in this trial, were much canvassed and 
inquired into ; and nothing could equal the favor paid to 
the one side, except the hatred which attended the 
other." The prejudiced Judges, four excepted, gave 
sentence in favor of the crown. " But Hampden," Mr. 
Hume proceeds to say, "obtained by the trial the end for 
which he had so generously sacrificed his safety and his 
quiet: the people were roused from their lethargy, and 
became sensible of the danger to which their liberties 
were exposed," etc. (3 Hume, 414, 416.) In the civil 
war which afterwards ensued, Hampden was wounded 
in battle, and died of his wound. Hume thus sums up 
his character: "Many were the virtues and talents of 
this eminent personage; and his valor during the war 
had shown out with a lustre equal to that of the other 
accomplishments by which he had been distinguished. 
Affability in conversation; temper, art, and eloquence 
in debate; penetration and discernment in counsel; in- 
dustry, vigilance, and enterprise in action; all these 
praises are unanimously ascribed to him, by historians 
of the most opposite parties. His virtues too and in- 
tegrity, in all the duties of private life, are allowed to 
have been beyond exception; but we must only be cautious 
notwithstanding his generous zeal for liberty, not hastily to 
ascribe to him the praises of a good citizen" Thus, and 
with this insidious caution to his readers, Mr. Hume 
sums up the merits and character of this high-spirited 
and devoted Patriot! 
21 



]H2 THE LTFE OF 

The history of Oliver Cromwell is written in charac- 
ters too broad and deep, and is too well known to justi- 
fy, at our hands, more than a passing remark. The 
faculties and the qualities of men are sometimes of early, 
perhaps precocious growth. Sometimes they come more 
tardily to maturity, and in many cases probably re- 
main inert or dormant, until, with their unconscious pos- 
sessor, they pass, never fully disclosed, to the grave! 
Man, whether viewed individually or in communities, 
seems, under providence of God, wonderfully the creature 
of circumstance. Great crisis in the affairs of men or of 
nations stimulate, strengthen, seem to create great facul- 
ties and great qualities, suitable to, and commensurate 
with the occasion! Thus the events of our own Revo- 
lution, acting powerfully upon the mind and the heart 
of the whole country, elicited and brought into vigor- 
ous action a degree and a variety of ability, and of 
talent, moral and intellectual, which in no age or coun- 
try have ever been surpassed, and which, but for the 
crisis which produced them, would never have been 
exhibited to our admiration! The correctness of this 
vein of thought is I think plainly demonstrated in the 
life and history of Oliver Cromwell. He had been a 
member of the House of Commons eight or ten years 
before his intended embarcation for America. In all 
that period he had acquired little or no distinction. He 
is spoken of indeed, by historians, as being then a man 
"of no account /" The extraordinary faculties he pos- 
sessed, and of which he was himself probably long un- 
conscious, do not seem to have been fully developed 
until the very foundations of the monarchy had been 
broken up, and the nation hurried into all the horrors 
of civil war ! 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 163 

Whether he were ever sincere in his habitual and 
lofty pretentions of sanctity and devotedness to the 
cause of free government, has, I am aware, long ago 
been brought into doubt. Having no very fixed opin- 
ion on that point myself, I am nevertheless inclined to 
the belief that in the beginning he was sincere; for if he 
were not, what motives could have led him to retire 
from the busy scenes of active life which were fast 
opening before him at home, and in which he after- 
wards took so distinguished a part? Why should he 
attempt, as unquestionably he did attempt to join the 
free, the peaceful, and the devout colonists of New 
England, and with such associates to bury all hopes of 
distinction, all the glittering promises of ambition, in 
the silent and secluded depths of that wilderness? But 
his great abilities gradually developed themselves and 
became more strongly marked. In the progress of time 
and of events, he became more conscious of his own en- 
larged and grasping capacity, and however sincere in 
the beginning he may have been, his ardour in the 
cause of political and religious freedom gradually merged 
in the more absorbing pursuits of his personal ambition. 
In any view of it, however, his case furnishes an im- 
posing illustration of the danger of vesting unrestricted 
and discretionary powers in the hands of a favorite party 
leader in a popular cause ! He commenced his public 
career with many professions of patriotism. He suc- 
ceeded in obtaining the full confidence of his party. 
As his faculties, by slow degrees, acquired fixedness of 
character he was esteemed sagacious and far-seeing in 
council beyond most men; and in the battle-field he 
Avas without a rival. He had some good qualities. 
But he died a despot — he left a story written in blood ! 



1(54 THE LIFE OF 

It is fit for us to weigh it well, and to remember that 
the warnings of history can never, never with impunity 
be despised! 

But it is time this digression were finished. The 
characters and the purposes of men may sometimes be 
judged of by those of their associates. It is in that 
view I have asked your consideration of these historical 
data. The Pilgrim Fathers could not be exempt from 
the ordinary evils which afflict society. Detraction 
followed them. Their motives have been impugned, 
their characters assailed, and derision and silly ridicule 
sought to be cast upon them and upon their descendants. 
And it has seemed to me that no vindication of their 
motives can be more appropriate than such as may be 
found in the nature of the Government from which they 
withdrew themselves; the odious prosecutions to which 
that Government subjected them; the rapid and appal- 
ling advances it was making towards uncontrolled and 
arbitrary power; and especially in a full understanding 
of the moral, intellectual, and political qualities and 
propensities, which distinguish their intimate friends, 
those with whom their sympathies and connections were ! 
and it has been to this end that I have asked your con- 
sideration of the condition of things in the country 
which they left, and of the hind of men with whom 
alone all their associations were; for of the same genus 
of the same race of intellectual, resolute, pious and de- 
voted Patriots and Christians, were the Pilgrim Fathers 
of New England! But they were then called "Puri- 
tans," ami in much later limes the same term has 
been sneeringly applied to thorn, as if it were a term 
of contempt and reproach, implying ignorance and fanat- 
icism! 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 165 

Certainly, the first settlers of New England, were of 
that portion of the people of their native country, who 
were denominated "Puritans." But who were intended 
by that general appellative? In its origin the term was 
used to designate the Calvinists of Great Britain, in 
contradistinction to those of the established Church, and 
they came to be called "Puritans," from their attempt- 
ing a purer form of worship and discipline than that pre- 
scribed by the English hierarchy. But, in the progress 
of time and of events, it ceased to be restricted to a 
mere religious sect, aud came to be applied in a far more 
comprehensive sense. Thus, the learned and accom- 
plished compiler of a well-known standard work, refer- 
ring to sundry authorities, affirms that "all were 'Pur- 
itans' in the estimation of King James, who adhered to 
the laws of the land in opposition to his arbitrary gov- 
ernment, though ever so good Churchmen. These were 
called 'Puritans in the State;' and those w r ho scrupled 
the ceremonies and adhered to the doctrines of Calvin 
were ' Church Puritans,' who, though comparatively few, 
yet being joined by those of the other class became the 
majority of the nation!' And Mr. Hume, who, it will be 
remembered, was not more the advocate of arbitrary 
power than he was a scoffer of Christianity, sustains the 
general fact assumed by Doctor Bees. Speaking of the 
transactions of 1628, he says: "Amidst the complica- 
tion of disputes in which men were then involved, we 
may observe that the appellation 'puritan' stood for 
three parties, which, though commonly united, w T ere yet 
actuated by very different views and motives. These 
were the political Puritans, who maintained the highest 
principles of civil liberty ; the Puritans in discipline, and 
the doctrinal Puritans. In opposition to all these stood 



1G6 THE LIFE OF 

the Court Parti/" etc. (3 Hume, 390.) On a previous 
page, and speaking of the occurrences of an antecedent 
period, he says: "For it is remarkable that this party 
(the Puritans) made the privileges of the nation as much 
a part of their religion, as the Church party did the pre- 
rogatives of the Crown," etc. (3 Hume, 345.) The 
Puritans then, the amalgamated party, were those who 
contended for a broader and a better defined rule of re- 
ligious and civil liberty. They were precisely such as 
Pym and Hampden, and Hazelrig and Vane, and a thou- 
sand others of those master-spirits — of those great and 
extraordinary men who, -produced by the crisis and equal 
to the crisis, at length, and at the expense no doubt of 
many indefensible excesses, prostrated the arbitrary 
government of the House of Stuart, and planted deep 
in the public mind those vigorous principles of manly 
freedom, which, reaching far beyond the temporary Pro- 
tectorate of Cromwell, occasioned the revolution of 1G88, 
and changed the future destinies of that great People ! 
Such then, I repeat, were the "Puritans;" such the 
companions of the Pilgrim Fathers, and such the objects 
of their convulsive struggles ! But, before one ray of 
brightness had gilded the horizon of the patriot at home; 
while all was gloom and darkness and fearful oppression 
there, the men of the "Plymouth Rock" had already 
left the land of their Fathers ! They had already gone 
into distant and inhospitable climes, in search of that 
peace and freedom which seemed forever shut out from 
them at home! It remains for us to see how far and 
in what manner these fugitives from oppression remained 
true to their declared faith? How far, when securely 
established in their wilderness domain, they sought to 
exhibit a practical demonstration of the great principles 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 167 

of their avowed creed? When these wanderers found 
themselves taken to a coast far distant from their intend- 
ed destination — when the privations and the exposures 
and the sufferings of a voyage so greatly protracted, had 
wasted their strength and impaired their health — when 
the winter storms and unwonted severities of that icy 
shore, had overtaken and threatened to ovenvhelm them, 
they bravely struggled with their destiny and yet re- 
tained their trust in God ! Their self-possession and 
their hopes did not desert them ! But yielding to a ne- 
cessity which now became imperative, and finding that 
they must look for their habitation there, they calmly 
set about preparing a system of regulations by which 
their young and feeble colony should thence-forward be 
governed. 

This system they drew in writing and severally signed, 
while all yet remained upon their frail barque. By that 
instrument they formed themselves into a "body poli- 
tic," and, establishing a few organic rules, and anticipat- 
ing the future necessity for further legislation, bound 
themselves, in the name of the God they worshipped, 
"to submit themselves to such laws and officers as 
should be judged most subservient to the general good." 
After the expiration of a few years, when their popula- 
tion and the number of their towns had very considera- 
bly increased, it was found inconvenient for the whole 
body of the people to meet for the passing of such laws 
as were necessary for their protection and comfort. 
Then by a supplemented compact, they enlarged their 
system, wisely adopting the principle of "Representa- 
tion." Their first General Assembly, organized upon 
this principle, was holden in 1639. An increased num- 
ber of "assistants," elected annually by the aggregate 



168 THE LIFE OF 

vote, appears to have constituted their "Council;" and 
the different towns within the limits of the colony, re- 
spectively elected and sent the prescribed number of 
"Deputies." With characteristic caution, the powers of 
ordinary legislation were limited, and the great princi- 
ples of public liberty abundantly secured by a few or- 
ganic regulations contained in the new agreement, which 
they termed appropriately enough the " General Funda- 
mentals" of their system; and it is worthy of regard, 
that among those "Fundamentals" was found incorpor- 
ated the bold and pregnant declaration that "no acts, 
laws, nor ordinances should be imposed upon them but 
such as were enacted by the consent of the body of the 
Freemen, or their Representatives, regularly assembled." 
Thus, under a Government founded solely on a volun- 
tary compact, and purely republican in its character, they 
effected a general peace with the surrounding barbarians, 
secured the comfort and prosperity of their little colony, 
and continuing to increase greatly in population and in 
power, they enjoyed all the blessings of a wise and free 
government, during a succession of many years. 

In 1G91, it was found expedient to gather, under one 
Colonial Government, the people of this colony together 
with all the various and detached colonies which in the 
mean time had grown up at Boston, Salem, and else- 
where in those parts of New England. Then it was 
that the name of "The Colony of New Plymouth" was 
merged in that of the venerated appellation of "The 
M.issachusetts Bay." But establishments had been 
made also, and had grown into importance in other more 
remote parts of New England. Inlhionced by the suc- 
cessful example of their friends of the "Plymouth 
Kock," multitudes of the most respected, because of the 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 1G9 

most upright and of the most enlightened of the yeo- 
manry of Great Britain, with many of the most highly 
educated persons in the Kingdom, availed themselves of 
every fit opportunity to escape from the degrading in- 
fluences of threatened despotism at home, or from its 
almost equally fatal alternative, those convulsive disor- 
ders which were rapidly hurling upon their country all 
the desolating horrors of civil war! They looked with 
deep interest to the infant establishments of their coun- 
trymen in the New World, already identified with them 
in religious principles and in their forms of worship, 
they now resolved to participate with them also, in the 
anticipated blessings of their free, peaceful, and happy 
institutions of civil government! This they fully ef- 
fected. In 1635, the first settlement in Connecticut 
was commenced; some two or three years afterwards a 
separate establishment was formed at New Haven; 
about the same time, the colony of Rhode Island and 
Providence plantations was founded, and anterior to 
that time, settlers had domiciliated themselves within 
the borders of New Hampshire. 

To review the progress of these several colonial estab- 
lishments, with their multiplied ramifications, through 
all the trials and vicissitudes to which they were sub- 
jected, in peace and in war, from infancy until, collec- 
tively, they had attained the fullness and the perma- 
nance of full grown maturity; to recite the perils of 
these early adventurers, their constancy, their courage, 
their perseverance, and especially their characteristic 
piety, and their devotedness to the cause of manly, but 
well regulated freedom; all this falls within the appro- 
priate province of the faithful historian. To analize 
and to examine minutely the various original and ad- 
22 



170 THE LIFE OF 

inirable institutions which they established, and to trace 
the prospective and extraordinary influences of those 
primative institutions upon society, and upon the future 
character and the happiness of their posterity; this is a 
work for the closet and the study, and should be re- 
served perhaps for a more deliberate occasion. To 
point out a few of these institutions, briefly to consider 
their tendencies, and to delineate some of the conse- 
quences which have resulted from them, is all I can at 
present aspire to, and important indeed will be the 
result, if, by doing so, I should conciliate towards them 
the general attention, and especially if I should thus 
happily excite in your hearts, gentlemen, a determina- 
tion to make them the subjects of your own special re- 
search, of your own more extended and philosophical 
consideration ! For I feel entirely persuaded that noth- 
ing can more certainly fasten in our hearts the elevated 
character of those extraordinary men, than such a 
study so pursued ! Nothing can so excite our venera- 
tion for their far-reaching and wonderful sagacity, and 
nothing can bring into so bold relief, that expanded be- 
nevolence, which, reaching far beyond the narrow cycle 
of their own years upon earth, looked forward to the relig- 
ious character, to the intellectual improvement, and to 
the enlightened freedom of their posterity through the 
revolving periods of all future time ! and, descendants as 
you are, gentlemen, from the "Pilgrim Fathers," and 
the proper guardians of their posthumous fame, to 
whom, if not to you, belongs the merit, the honor, the 
filial duty of vindicating that fame and awakening our 
grateful recognition of the multiplied and priceless bless- 
ings, which, under the providence of God, their labors 
have conferred upon us? 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 171 

If then, in this spirit and with such intent, you should 
be persuaded to explore this whole matter and look into 
the ample store of rich blessings our early ancestors 
have garnered up for us, your attention will no doubt 
be first arrested by a consideration of that great and 
leading characteristic of their social organization, the 
strongly marked religious aspect and tendency of all 
their settled regulations. This constitutes too bold and 
prominent a feature to escape the detection of the most 
careless observer. A strong religious feeling, a deep 
and chastened sense of responsibility and of dependence 
upon God, and a corresponding veneration for his char- 
acter, pervade all their plans and all their measures — 
and even in this slight review, I should hold myself 
highly censurable, if I were to pass over without notice 
this, the pervading spirit of the whole! But any dis- 
cussion on my part, of the relations which exist between 
man, in his individual capacity, and the Creator and Ru- 
ler of all things, however immeasurably important these 
relations may be to the individual happiness of man, 
does not come within the scope I had on this occasion 
prescribed for myself. Such a theme is for the minister 
of the Gospel : for him whose fervid exhortations and 
whose untiring and eloquent appeals, you, gentlemen, as 
true sons of New England are, no doubt, accustomed to 
listen to on every Sabbath. Passing by, then, but with 
all becoming reverence, this branch of the subject, my 
purpose is to solicit your more particular attention to 
the influences which that spirit of piety and devotion 
to which I have alluded, is certainly calculated to exert 
upon society — upon men in their collective and aggre- 
gate character — upon nations. The ignorant and the 
thoughtless may sneer at the eminent piety of the early 



172 THE LIFE OP 

"Puritans;" the buffoon may make it the subject of his 
coarse and vulgar jest! But let all such, point to the 
instance, if it can be found, either in sacred or profane 
history, in which any nation has attained to eminence, 
and sustained itself in its elevation and prosperity, 
whose people have not been distinguished by a fervent 
piety, a pervading and deep sense of religious feeling? 
" Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to politi- 
cal prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable 
supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of 
patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pil- 
lars of human happiness — these firmest props of the 
duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equal- 
ly with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish 
them. A volume could not trace all their connection 
with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked 
where is the security for property, for reputation, for 
life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths 
which are the instruments of investigation in courts of 
justice? And let us with caution indulge in the suppo- 
sition, that morality can be maintained without religion. 
Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined 
education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and ex- 
perience both forbid us to expect that national morality 
can prevail in exclusion of religious principles." Thus 
spake the man whose memory we all revere. Thus spake 
the man at whose feet the shafts of contemptuous ridi- 
cule always fell harmless and with broken point! And 
if the propositions he advances be in themselves true, 
when applied to all forms of human government, how 
much more manifestly are they true when applied to a 
government like ours, whose only basis is public opinion, 
and whose strength, whose continuance, whose life- 



WILLIAM WOODBMDGE. 173 

giving principle, are the virtue, the intelligence of its 
people ! 

And here, passing to another topic, I desire again to 
refer for a moment to the paternal injunctions of the 
same distinguished personage — of him who never ad- 
vised without wisdom, and who never exhorted but in 
the voice of patriotism ! In view of the powerful agen- 
cy of public opinion, in all the operations of popular 
governments, General Washington thus admonishes the 
people of the United States : " Promote then, (he says,) 
as an object of primary importance, institutions for the 
general diffusion of "knowledge. In proportion as the struc- 
ture of a government gives force to public opinion, 
it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened!" 
Let us take pride to ourselves then, gentlemen, that our 
sagacious but quiet and unobtrusive ancestors — "the 
Puritan founders" of . New England — had nearly two 
hundred years before the Fareivell Address was written, 
reduced those speculative but undoubted truths into 
a full and practical demonstration ! For closely connec- 
ted with their purpose to infuse into the minds and 
hearts of those who should come after them, those prin- 
ciples of piety and religion which so eminently char- 
acterised themselves, was their system of "common 
schools." Of inferior importance, in their estimation, 
only to their religious establishments; so, next in the or- 
der of time, this subject engrossed their attention. 
Their plan was original; or, if not original with them, 
it was in New England only that it was first carried into 
systematic operation, as a distinct and elementary prin- 
ciple of their social and political organization. It was 
there that its utility was first made manifest — it was 
there that the great moral beauty of the system was 



174 THE LIFE OF 

fully and practically illustrated ! But there, within the 
restrictive limits of the country of its origin, was this 
primitive but most beneficent institution destined to be 
confined for a long, long course of years, — unnoticed 
abroad, without imitation, and without acknowledge- 
ment. 

Isolated in position, having very little connection, 
anterior to the period of our Revolution, with the in- 
habitants of the other British colonies, and very much 
cut off from all intercourse with the rest of the world? 
except through the medium of a direct and limited 
trade with the mother-country, their institutions were 
but little known and, therefore, not justly appreciated; 
and there, without being made the subject either of 
boasting or noise, amidst the rocky cliffs and green 
hills of New England, this system has remained in full 
operation, bearing the test of a long unbroken experi- 
ence, scattering its blessings broadcast among all classes 
of people, and growing more in the affection of its count- 
less beneficiaries every day! But it was not fated al- 
ways to remain the undivided privilege of the country 
of its origin. Thanks to the expanded benevolence, to 
the characteristic perseverance, to the "bigotry" if gen- 
tlemen will have it so, of the "Puritans" of New Eng- 
land; thanks, a thousand thanks to the Danes and the 
Shermans of our Father-land, a scion was taken from 
that stock and planted in the "Far-west," and it took 
root there and grew! And when the teeming popula- 
tion of the "Plymouth Rock" had spread over the sur- 
face of that country, in which its destinies had first 
been cast, and its superabundant numbers were seeking 
more space, a finer soil, and a more genial climate, in 
the primative forests of the "Great Valley;" each car- 



WILLIAM WOODBFJDGE. 175 

ried with him the habits and predilections of his fathers, 
and each, as he arrived in the chosen country of his 
new habitation, aided con amove in the protection, in the 
growth, and in the expansion of the embryo system 
New England Councils had happily planted there! Now 
it is deeply imbedded among its most favorite organic 
institutions. Its vigorous shoots with richer promise 
for the future, are already beginning to shed abroad, 
throughout the boundless West, their copious and benig- 
nant fruit! nor has it grown when transplanted, like 
some exotics, with a penurious and stinted growth, for 
in the West, too, it is now basking in the genial warmth 
of the public favor! It is fitted, indeed, to any lati- 
tude, to any climate, and so, as it preserve its original 
stamina, and the great outlines of its dimensions, it may 
be increased even in its utility and its beauty in the 
very process of its adaptation to the varied circumstances 
of its new location. Thus, here, in our own new State, 
a State as it were of yesterday, provision is made in 
the organic law, not only for its establishment upon a 
comprehensive and well-adjusted plan, but, as auxiliary 
to its great purpose, it is also ordained that there shall 
be established, in each township of the State, at least 
one public library. The advantages of a universal and 
irrevocable provision, in the fundamental law, for an ob- 
ject like this, over any which voluntary contribution or 
local and conventional agreements in the several town- 
ships can furnish, are obvious. But, at the outset, an 
embarrassing difficulty presented itself, which seemed 
to leave but little ground for hope that the measure 
would succeed — and although a relation of the incidents 
that occurred may seem out of place here, I hope I may 
be pardoned for alluding to them. It will be conceded 



17G THE LIFE OF 

that a barren enactment that such public libraries should 
be established, without indicating any means either to 
procure or to sustain them, would have been but idle 
mockery. But the State had no means: it was just 
then coming into existence. It had no existing fund 
which could be made available for such a purpose. It 
had none which could promise to be productive for a long 
and indefinite period — not, probably, until after the ex- 
isting population should all "have been gathered to 
their fathers!" It was then that the original thought 
occurred to one of the members of the convention, 
himself a descendant of the Puritans, to meet the 
obstacle by constituting, of all the sums assessed for 
the non-performance of militia service, and of the pe- 
cuniary products of all fines imposed for the viola- 
tion of the penal law, throughout the State, and for 
all future lime, a fund, to be made exclusively appli- 
cable to that beneficent purpose ! Thus converting the 
very crimes of the citizen into a means of ameliorating 
the heart of the student, and his refusal to appear on 
the guady parade, "armed and equipped according to 
law," into a means, "of diffusing useful knowledge 
among men!" and so it is ordained in the Constitution 
of Michigan. There may be something whimsical in the 
strange commixture of ideas which the project implies, 
but it is characteristic of its origin, and like all genuine 
" Yankee Notions," it has much of the 'practically useful 
in it. It saved and rendered effectual the constitu- 
tional provision for the establishment of public libraries, 
and if these moneys be faithfully collected and paid over, 
and the fund be administered with discretion and fidel- 
ity it will constitute, in a short period, and judging of 
the future by the past, a rich and productive endow- 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 177 

merit. It gives me pleasure to bear thus my individual 
testimony in favor of the bold projector of this peculiar, 
but most useful improvement upon the general plan.* 
(See Art. 10, Sees. 3 and 4, Cons, of Michigan.) 

But, dwelling no longer upon these details, it is ap- 
propriate to remark, that the whole subject of common 
schools, and the diffusion of useful knowledge among 
men, seems recently to have engrossed in a very great 
degree the public attention. Men of a high order of 
talents among us, have made it the subject of much 
philosophical research, and loudly proclaimed its import- 
ance. Patriots, too, who discover in "the signs of the 
times" harbingers of evil omen, are looking with intense 
interest to the influences, remote perhaps, but in their 
view certain, which this system of common schools is 
exerting, as their last, but sure ground of hope for the 
preservation, in its purity, of our free and popular Gov- 
ernment. Nor is the pride of ancient Europe offended 
at the thoughts of borrowing from the New World a 
system which has worked so well here ! It is in full 
and successful operation, especially in the northern 
parts of Germany. And common schools, and other 
means " of diffusing useful knowledge among men," 
have been the topics of the most philosophical and elo- 
quent disquisitions of the British press ! All this is as 
it should be. But the wonder is, that an operative 
principle, so prolific of results and of so priceless value, 
should have remained so long unnoticed and unknown, 
except within the limited region of its direct and benig- 

* Edward D. Ellis, Esq., then of Monroe, was a member of the Convention, 
and when this subject was under discussion, and on the spur of the occasion, 
he proposed this method of obtaining the requisite means for establishing 
and maintaining the Township Libraries. 

23 



178 THE LIFE OF 

nant influences ! It is no centennial plant that bestows 
its product and displays its splendid beauties to the sun 
but once only in a hundred years. It is rather some ac- 
tive and perennial power, and as all may see, of instant, 
continued, and unceasing fraitfulness! A power which, 
pervading the masses of society, seeks indiscriminately 
the recipients of its bounty in the humble walks of life, 
and among the indigent as well as the opulent; which 
teaches to all alike the great moral and social duties of 
man! A power which sends its genial influences, in 
equal measure, to the heart and to the understanding of 
the poor and of the wealthy, and gives form, and strength, 
and expansion to the moral and to the intellectual facul- 
ties of all those who, in due succession, must participate, 
more or less largely, in the administration of their com- 
mon Government, and into whose custody, for the time 
being, the destinies of this beautiful country of ours 
must be committed! 

And this system, so simple in its design, so benefi- 
cent in its purposes and in its effects, so perfectly har- 
monizing with all the free institutions of our country, 
was the work, gentlemen, of our "Puritan" ancestors! 
Neither the military schools for the magnates of the 
Empire of Cyrus, nor the Gymnasia of ancient Greece, 
nor the philosophic disquisitions of Locke nor of Milton, 
nor even the wild dreaming of Jean Jacques Rousseau, 
could furnish its prototype. It was an original con- 
ception in the minds of our "Puritan" fathers. It was 
interwoven in the very texture of their Governments. 
It was indigenous alone to the soil of New England ! 
Pardon me, gentlemen, for detaining you so long on a 
topic so common-place — perhaps, so trite. I have 
sought to press upon your remembrance the pregnant 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 179 

facts I have asserted, lest at any time it should be for- 
gotten that this priceless jewel was an emanation from 
the "Plymouth Rock!" 

Colonel Benton sometimes, pleasantly enough, charges 
his brothers of the Senate with "stealing his thunder!" 
But "let honor be rendered to whom honor is due." Let 
no man rob from the dead ! Let no man wrest from 
the brow of our ancestry, " Puritans " though they were, 
the honor of devising a plan which, of itself, should 
have secured to their memory a high place among the 
most distinguished of the benefactors of mankind. 

It has long ago been said of our fathers, gentlemen, 
not only that "they were a church-going people," but 
also, that they were "a law-abiding people!" Both 
propositions, and greatly to their honor, are abundantly 
true. No people on earth were ever more scrupulously 
axact in conforming themselves in all things to the let- 
ter of the law, than they were : and none more obedient, 
in all things lawful, to the orders of those in authority! 
And this for the very sound and natural reason, that they 
were themselves, always, the makers of the law; and those 
in authority derived all their powers from the same source 
— the aggregate will of all. I have endeavored, gentle- 
men, at least on this occasion, to bring myself within 
the spirit of the latter of these admirable characteristics. 
The constituted authorities of your Society have signi- 
fied to me, that it is their pleasure that I should read 
before you a written address. I, am a son of New Eng- 
land. How could I oppose myself to .an order emanat- 
ing from such a source? I could not: and hence it is, 
that I undertook to group together such comments upon 
the history, the character, and the institutions of our 
"Pilgrim Fathers," as might seem appropriate to the 



180 TI1E LIFE OF 

occasion. Especially, it was my desire to vindicate the 
character and the motives of our ancestors; and exhibit 
a slight but a symmetrical view of their principal insti- 
tutions, political as well as social : to follow them over 
the broad country into which they have been transplant- 
ed, to trace their prospective influences upon the char- 
acter and condition of their posterity; or, at all events, 
to indicate, so far as I might be enabled to do so, such 
topics, and such a course of investigation, as might seem 
entirely worthy of your further and more deliberate in- 
dividual researches. But as I approach the labor, it in- 
creases and expands before me ! Subjects, all worthy 
of careful analysis, and of the most earnest considera- 
tion, multiply almost without end. And now, that I 
have barely "penetrated through the bark" of this com- 
plicated and fruitful theme, I find it necessary to close, 
having already occupied as much of your indulgent atten- 
tion as the proprieties of the occasion seem to permit. 

A review of these topics — especially of their canons 
of descent, their abolition of the law of primogeniture, 
and the consequent more equal distribution, among all 
the citizens, of the landed estate of the country ; the po- 
litical sub-division of the State into townships; the estab- 
lishment in each of a government for all local purposes, 
purely domocratic, and which, as a preparatory school, 
fits all alike for the proper performance of the higher 
duties of government, might each furnish the subject of 
a treatise; a glance at these, and at the wonderful har- 
mony which they exhibit, and their admirable fitness 
for the exercise and the enjoyment of the high privileges 
of a free, well-regulated, and a well-balanced Govern- 
ment, must be reserved for some future occasion, and 
probably for some more able expositor. Commending 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 181 

all these topics, gentlemen, to your future and earnest 
attention, and thanking you for your indulgent attention, 
I will no longer impose myself upon your exhausted 
patience. 



182 THE LIFE OF 



AN ADDRESS 
Before the Detroit Young Mens Society. 



Delivered by Request, April, 184S. 



Gentlemen of the "Detroit Young Mens' Society:" 

It has been matter of conjecture, among antiquaries 
and speculative politicians, whether it did not enter into 
the design of the first settlers of New England, to found 
there a separate, an independent commonwealth? And 
whether those bold and fearless spirits did not look for- 
ward to precisely such an epoch as occurred in 1776, 
some one hundred and fifty years after. 

I have seen it somewhere asserted, that among the 
secret archives of the government of Great Britain, 
there are proofs, a series of concurrent proofs, that from 
the earliest periods of those colonial establishments, 
there existed such a design, positive or contingent; and 
that until its final consummation, it was never entirely 
lost sight of by leading men of the colony. 

I pretend not to affirm this proposition, nor to deny 
it; but I think it may be demonstrated that, whether 
such a contingency, or final result, were originally con- 
templated or not, the habits of that people fitted them 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 183 

for it, and all their primitive institutions tended that 
way. Although the forms and the essential qualities 
of any government cannot fail to exercise a powerful 
influence in moulding the manners, customs and general 
cast of sentiment of those who owe allegiance to it; yet 
it is not less true, that the peculiar genius of a people 
still more powerfully controls the character and essential 
qualities of their government. The history of every 
age, and of every country, demonstrates the important 
truth, that the habits and modes of thinking and acting 
of any people, in the various domestic, social and polit- 
ical relations of life, override and give character to all 
their positive laws ; while their fundamental institu- 
tions, re-acting, especially upon the generation which 
is advancing, give distinctness, and tone, and fashion, 
for succeeding ages, to their moral and political charac- 
ters. Thus acting, and re-acting, each upon the other, 
these great moral agents secure consistency, harmony, 
and permanence to the condition of society. 

The first settlers of New England were a peculiar 
people. Their characters were formed in the country 
they left, and by the times in which they lived. It 
was a school of adversity and of fearful oppression, both 
political and religious. There was passing before them 
there, between the genius of British liberty on the one 
side, and the votaries of despotism on the other, a death 
struggle of fearful foreboding! At no time since the 
Christian era, has such a struggle been more severe,. nor 
the actors in the contest more distinctly, more clearly 
marked than in England, during the period which imme- 
diately followed and preceded the departure of the Pil- 
grims. 

In the published address which I was requested by 



184 THE LIFE OF 

the New England Society of Detroit not long ago to pre- 
pare, I adverted, sufficiently in detail in this respect, to 
the condition of the country the Pilgrims had left. Of 
their personal character, too, and that of some of the 
most distinguished among their associates, I had some- 
thing to say. I was proceeding to notice consecutively 
the most prominent of their peculiar institutions ; but 
these topics seemed to multiply, and the subject grew 
upon me as I advanced. I had not allotted myself time 
to be short, and after making some progress in the dis- 
cussion which I had prescribed for myself, I became ad- 
monished by the proprieties of the occasion that I must 
break off, however abruptly. It is not my purpose to 
repeat what I then said. But the vein of thought which 
that occasion induced, led to views I did not then pre- 
sent, and to some of these I propose now to advert; 
though I fear you may consider them suited rather to 
engage the attention of the sons of New England, than 
yours. Candor indeed may render it proper for me to 
say, that motives of personal convenience may have in- 
fluenced my selection on this occasion of such a theme. 
I do not expect again to address the New England So- 
ciety of Detroit. But having been led, in the manner 
I have stated, to review my recollections of the men, 
and the institutions of New England, a course of re- 
search suggested itself which I have thought might be 
profitably pursued by all, of whatsoever lineage, who as 
American citizens claim part in the heritage of our Fa- 
thers. Those who participate in public affairs, as all 
American citizens according to their convenience and 
opportunity ought to do — those who like you, gentlemen, 
may expect to take an active part in regulating the pol- 
icy, and in shaping the future destinies of our young 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 185 

and Vigorous commonwealth, will find it interesting 
surely, and most highly useful to seek, in the institutions 
and through the history of the past, for those primary 
and extraordinary causes, which, in the providence of 
God, have led our favored country from the helpless- 
ness of childhood, so suddenly, into all the fullness and 
vigor of 'perfected maturity; which have brought freedom, 
and security, and happiness into our social and domestic 
circles, and crowned our nation with all that wealth and 
prosperity and renown, can confer! 

You will not, then, deem it out of place I hope, nor 
in the slightest degree disrespectful, that I should ask 
you to consider with me, of the influences which the 
habits and the institutions of the early colonists of New 
England may have exerted upon the character of the gov- 
ernment and the existing establishments of the country. 
To touch, and that but slightly, upon some of the most 
prominent of these prolific topics, is all I shall now ven- 
ture upon. The subject is too large and too multifar- 
ious, to be comprised in a brief and ephemeral product- 
ion such as this. But if I can awaken a spirit of 
philosophic inquiry into these matters; if I can per- 
suade any one of you, gentlemen, to trace the long 
series of consequences which have resulted from those 
original institutions and habits — institutions and habits 
which without much consideration, we are quite apt, in 
these, the days of our prosperity, to deride and laugh 
at — I feel that I have done some good. 

The most conspicuous of all those characteristics which 
distinguished the original founders of New England, 
was that deeply seated religious feeling which pervaded 
all their institutions; which infused its spirit into all 
they did; which gave complexion to all their habits. 
24 



186 THE LIFE OF 

There could be no better pledge of the favor of Provi- 
dence; no surer guarantee of their prosperity as a 
people, in all future time. But I forbear from all pro- 
longed comments upon this most fertile branch of the 
general subject. In the public address to which I have 
alluded, I expressed my thoughts upon it sufficiently at 
large. A few remarks only in addition to those I then 
made, will comprise all to which I would now desire 
your indulgent attention. 

A little reflection will admonish us, gentlemen, that 
there is great affinity, and a very intimate connection 
between civil and religious freedom. The one can 
hardly exist and be enjoyed amply, without the other. 
Both were dear to the "Puritans" of Great Britain; and 
both were denied to them by the reigning monarch. 
Freedom of opinion, the liberty to worship God accord- 
ing to the dictates of their own consciences, more espe- 
cially, they clung to with the devotedness of martyrs! 
In the assertion of this liberty, they were prepared to 
meet all hazards; to incur all hardships; to endure all 
things; to suffer all things. The hierarchy of Great 
Britain they had repudiated. All obedience to the 
Bench of Bishops they had spurned and renounced! 
They were of that sect of Protestant Christians called 
" Congregationalists," whose creed acknowledged no 
prelacy \ no high order of dignitaries in the church; 
and whose forms of government were all based upon 
equality of privilege and of right, among all the mem- 
bers of the society, whether communicants or not. 

In the location and in the building of their churches, 
for example; in the selection, employment, and dismis- 
sion of their pastors, in fixing their salaries, in all the 
temporal and prudential affairs of their society, all had 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 187 

an equal voice. In short, their church government, in 
all its principles, in all its tendencies, and in all the 
habits of thinking and acting, which it superinduced, 
was purely Republican! And what is more natural, 
more congruous; and what, may I ask, was more una- 
voidable, than that a people, brought up all their lives 
to be familiar with the workings of such a system, in 
which, when of proper age, all participated; should ap- 
ply that system, when they could so apply it, to their 
civil government? Now, I would not advance the ab- 
surd proposition, that none but congregational ists can, 
in modern times, be republicans. Such a proposition 
would be both arrogant and historically untrue. What- 
ever may be said of the despotic tendencies of the creed 
and the government of one church; or of the oligarch- 
ical character of the doctrines and the observances of 
another; or of the adverse influences of any in this 
regard; all these may be encountered and overcome, as, 
during the revolutionary war they were encountered and 
overcome by intelligence, energy of purpose, and manly 
patriotism. It is proverbially said, you know, that 
"man is a creature of habit." This is true, intellect- 
ually and morally, as well as physically. The greater 
therefore, is our responsibility; and the more impera- 
tive is our duty, as free moral agents, that we should 
suffer no habits to steal upon us except such as, in their 
influences, are good. But what I mean to say, is this, 
that having deliberately chosen, for the government of 
the temporal affairs of the church, a system unquali- 
fiedly republican and free in its character; and being 
educated and brought up under its operations, their pre- 
dispositions, habits, all their propensities must have led 
them, irresistibly, to adopt the same system of free re- 



188 TIIE LIFE OF 

publican government for the regulation of their civil 
and political affairs. 

A distinguished Representative in Congress is repu- 
ted to have advanced in debate, the bold proposition, 
that "it was education that made so many Whigs in the 
United States." If to "education" he would add "and 
honesty of purpose," / should not quarrel with the 
proposition. But however that may be, I hold myself 
quite safe in the assertion, that a genuine, old-fashioned 
congregationalist, of the "Puritan" school, must neces- 
sarily, in habit and in principle, have been a republi- 
can! 

"Virtue," it is said, "is the spirit of republican gov- 
ernment." This is doubtless very true; and so far as 
human legislation can avail, the religious establishments 
of these early adventurers encouraged and secured it. 
But it is equally true I apprehend, that to virtue you 
must add knowledge; or the system must fall! Govern- 
ment is a science. It requires study, enlightened judg- 
ment, close observation, and an habitual and practical 
knowledge of its operations and principles. 

When, many years ago, the Walk-in-the-Water first 
made its appearance at our wharves, it produced, as you 
may well suppose, quite a sensation, especially among 
those who had never seen or heard of a steamboat be- 
fore. The advent of so extraordinary a monster was 
soon bruited about. Among the multitudes who gath- 
ered from far and near to look at it, there was a native 
Canadian, a little above middle age. He was an amia- 
ble, an intelligent, and a highly respected citizen. But 
he had never heard of a steamboat before. Beini>; ad- 
vised of its arrival and wonderful performance, he had 
set out on the instant, fearing it would leave the city 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 189 

before he could see it; and travelling some thirty miles 
or more, principally in the night-time, he reached here 
about daylight. More bold than the rest, and early as 
it was, he ventured on board. He was politely received, 
remained a long time on board, and was shown every 
thing. But he could speak no English. Verbal ex- 
planations, therefore, were of no avail. 

Very early in the same morning, and long before my 
ordinary time of rising, I was startled by a violent and 
continued knocking at my door. Dressing myself very 
hastily, I went to see what terrible thing had happened. 
It was my old and polite acquaintance, Mons. Tremble, 
living somewhere about the mouth of Huron, now " Clin- 
ton" river. Scarcely allowing himself time for courte- 
ous salutation which Frenchmen, (God bless them!) 
never forget; and in a condition of undisguised agitation, 
he brust into an exclamation that "the world was com- 
ing to an end !" I thought he spoke distinctly; I thought 
I heard him clearly ; but I could not comprehend him! 
"Plait il, Monsieur?" I said to him; and he repeated 
his affirmation — "Voila la fin du monde," he said, "que 
s'approache; et bien tot tout sera detruit!" He was 
not drunk, I thought; he did not appear like a crazy 
man. I could not believe that I was either the one or 
the other; and feeling that it was my turn to be aston- 
ished, I again asked him what he said? what he meant? 
A third time he repeated his assertion, but in conclusion 
he went on to remark, that "Now you and I see vessels 
driven with violence by fire through the water. Soon 
they will be hurled through the air also by fire. You 
and I may probably both live to see these things; and 
then all things will melt with fervent heat, and the 
world will be burnt up ! The priests, told him so — the 



190 THE LIFE OF 

Holy Bible says it !" The mystery was solved, he had 
seen the steamboat! 

Now take away the engineers from either of the mag- 
nificent steamers at your wharves, and place this amia- 
ble, excellent, and virtuous man as he then was, in con- 
trol of its machinery, and who of you, gentlemen, would 
trust your persons or your property on board that steam- 
er in her next voyage to Buffalo? Or, and it would be 
a proposition scarcely more absurd, will you set a South 
Sea Islander, who never heard a word of Greek, to 
translate one of the books of the Odyssey? or will you 
take a wild Mexican, honest and true, and pious withal, 
(if you can catch such a one!) and place in his charge 
the complicated machinery of one of your departments 
of government in Washington ? and what a lovely kettle 
offish he would make of it ! No, gentlemen, it is vain 
and idle to hope that any set of people can long carry 
on a free republican government without knowledge too 
as well as virtue! And this, if we may judge by their 
works, the founders of New England seem practically to 
have understood. Their system of education — their 
plan for the diffusion of knowledge among all grades 
and ranks and classes in society, was beautiful, unpre- 
cedented, unique. There was nothing like it in any age 
nor country ! The nearest approximation to it may be 
found in the system about the same time, or soon after 
adopted in Scotland. But that applied only to the 
higher classes; it was brought home only to the chil- 
dren of land proprietors, and those, as you know, in feu- 
dal times constituted but a small portion of the entire 
population. 

The New Englanders divided their country into small 
school districts, in every one of which, under adequate 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 191 

pecuniary penalties, a free school was required to be 
kept and funds were provided for it. In every county 
town, a grammar school was required also to be kept, 
at which the learned languages and the higher branches 
of science were required to be taught. I care not un- 
der what pretences, real or delusive, this system was 
forced upon the country. The Yankees sometimes gave 
queer reasons for what they did. So do others, some- 
times. Lord Coke was always scrupulously exact, you 
know, gentlemen, to find some reason for every proposi- 
tion he advanced, and the reason he gives us why a 
father may not inherit from his son, why the land of the 
son, upon his demise, does not accrue to the father, is a 
little queer also — it is " quia ponderosum est!" 

The Pilgrim Fathers seem to have felt themselves un- 
der some stringent necessity to give their reasons for 
the establishment of schools and colleges. One of their 
early acts of legislation on this subject, passed nearly 
two hundred years ago, may furnish a specimen. It 
contains a summary of them by way of preamble, in the 
following terms: "It being one chief object of Satan," 
they say, "to keep men from the knowledge of the scrip- 
tures, as in former times, keeping them in an unknown 
tongue; so in these latter times, by persuading them 
from the use of tongues, so that at least the true sense 
and meaning of the original might be clouded by the 
false glosses of saint-seeming deceivers, and that learn- 
ing might not be buried in the graves of our forefathers, 
in church and colony, the Lord assisting our endeavors. 
It is therefore ordered," etc., "that every township with- 
in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased them 
to the number of fifty householders, shall then forthwith 
appoint one within the town, to teach all such children," 



192 THE LIFE OF 

etc.; "and it is further ordered, that in every county 
town there shall be set up and kept a grammar school, 
for the use of the county, the master thereof being able 
to instruct youths, so far as they may be fitted for col- 
lege," etc. 

I will not, however, detain you by further comment 
upon this most striking feature in the institutions and 
history of the primitive founders of New England. I 
enlarged upon it quite sufficiently, and I feared ad nau- 
tiam, the other da} r . I introduce it now not with reference 
to its intrinsic merits, to its harmony of adaptation, or to 
its great moral beauty — these will stand the admiration 
of future generations! Time, under whose rude touch 
most things human grow dark, and wither, and disap- 
pear, will but bring into bolder relief those excellencies, 
and polish and brighten them with a more glowing and 
radiant lustre! But I have now asked your atten- 
tion to this peculiar institution because of the ulterior, 
the remote, the permanent and widespread influences, 
which, through succeeding generations, it seems destined 
to exert upon the moral and intellectual character of our 
whole country — and more especially upon the principles 
and character of its political establishments and govern- 
ment. 

If it be true, as I have assumed, that for the success- 
ful administration of a republican government, a gen- 
eral diffusion of knowledge is quite as indispensable as 
virtue and morality, then its results that to this system 
only, or some adequate substitute for it, the American 
people must look for any good ground of hope, that our 
existing free and republican government, can long, in 
its original purity and simplicity, be successfully ad- 
ministered. We cannot pierce through the dark mists 



• WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 193 

which conceal the future. But in this regard, at least, 
the indications are auspicious. The desire of extending 
this system of education and admirably contrived plan 
of diffusing knowledge among all classes of men, has, 
with the American people, become a passion! It has 
been fully transplanted, you know, into the broad val- 
leys of the teeming West; and it conies, the harbinger 
and hand-maid of self-government! Long chilled by 
indifference, and frowned upon as a worthless Yankee 
notion, it pined and languished; but Yankee persever- 
ance has prevailed. The system is now fully installed 
in public favor throughout the West, and unborn millions 
will yet live to bless, in the fullness of their hearts, as 
well the inventors of the scheme, as the hands that 
planted it among them! But in whatsoever degree it 
may win its way to the public favor in other States, 
new or old, (and in all strenuous efforts are now making 
to introduce and foster it,) neither this nor their religi- 
ous institutions can be separated from the affections 
and the policy of the New England States, unless, 
indeed, in some great convulsion, all the elements of 
society there shall be shaken from their places, scat- 
tered and destroyed. They constitute the very foun- 
dation, as immovable, and as firm as the rock of Ply- 
mouth, upon which all their State Governments, and 
every other institution among them, domestic, social, or 
political, are based. 

These sagacious men did not stop even here; they 
in no wise left their work so unfinished. We shall see 
how, further, they sought to give consistency, compact- 
ness, and finish to their plan. It will have been 
noticed, that at an early period, the country occupied 
25 



194 THE LIFE OF 

by them was subdivided into societies, or parishes, ^vitli 
a view to religious purposes; and into districts, with 
reference to purposes of education. Within each, un- 
der the sanctions and provisions of the general law, 
their ordinary affairs, fiscal and economical, were re- 
spectively conducted; the requisite police was duly en- 
forced in them; they constituted parts of the political 
machinery of government. 

They created also other organic political bodies of a 
very peculiar character. The whole country was divi- 
ded into corporations, all bounded locally by territorial 
limits, with numerous and extensive political powers. 
Their plan of township government, so far as I have 
been able to discover, was original, and truly sui generis. 
Alfred, the best and wisest of the Saxon monarchs, sub- 
divided his Kingdom of England into hundreds, tythe- 
ings and counties. This was to secure a more perfect 
subordination ; it was for the' better government of the 
Kingdom. It brought home to each individual, doubt- 
less, more security; but it yet fastened upon each a 
direct individual responsibility, and that without adding 
materially to the privileges of the subject, or increasing 
his political powers. The incorporation of boroughs, 
some centuries afterwards, though it might have sug- 
gested the thought, in no wise constituted a model for 
the New England system. Though greatly promotive 
of the popular cause wherever such privileges were con- 
veyed, yet those charters were but seldom granted, and 
then only to subserve some local or specific purpose. 
They were isolated cases, and not parts of any general 
and harmonious system. But to whatsoever source 
this New England plan may be traced, its adoption has 
certainly exerted a most powerful and decisive influ- 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 195 

ence upon the political character and habits o{ the 
people over whom it has been extended. 

Upon these corporate political bodies, collectively, 
covering the tvhole State, each acting within its own de- 
fined township limits, was usually conferred almost the 
whole power of regulating and controlling the municipal 
concerns and the internal police of the country. They 
ascertained and directed the amount of money which it 
might be deemed necessary to be raised by taxation for 
the support of the poor, for the construction and repair 
of highways and bridges, and all the various purposes 
which might be necessary within the township; and they 
supervised its disbursement. They were ordinarily 
vested with the power of granting licenses for taverns, 
ferries, etc., and appointed the various officers whose 
functions were to be exercised within the township lim- 
its, seeing to their proper qualification, etc., and they 
exercised generally a controlling and supervisory power 
over all the public interests within their respective juris- 
dictions. 

By the general law of the State, the citizens of each 
township are required to meet periodically in "general 
town meeting," at certain fixed periods, at some central 
and convenient place, to be by them designated, and as 
much oftener as the public business may require, and so 
met "in legal town meeting," they are duly organized: 
a presiding officer and a competent number of clerks are 
appointed, possessing all the powers deemed requisite 
in the best organized deliberative assemblies. At these 
"legal township meetings," the old and the young attend, 
and according to the original plan of the "Pilgrim Fath- 
ers," all the admitted freemen of the township, being 
over twenty-one years old, and without other qualifica- 



196 THE LIFE OF 

tions, are made competent to participate in all discus- 
sions and debates, and to vote on all questions and in 
all elections. In short, every township constitutes a 
pure and simple democracy, where all the people, in 
their political and sovereign capacity, personally, and 
without representation, meet together to discuss, delib- 
erate, and to act on all the various public affairs which 
may be before them. They determine, each having an 
equal voice, "what shall be clone, hoiv it shall be done, 
and tvJw shall do it." And I can conceive of no possible 
device or contrivance so admirably calculated to famil- 
iarize all men with the public business of the country — 
to accustom the young and the old to the forms of de- 
liberative assemblies — to fit them all, according to their 
respective talents, for legislators, and indeed for all the 
higher grades of public life. 

I can well remember the event of the first introduc- 
tion of that system into that which is Ohio now. I 
think it was about two years before Ohio became a State. 
I was too young then to participate at all in public af- 
fairs, or very fully to understand them. But this event 
I the more distinctly recollect, principally, perhaps be : 
cause of the deep interest all the Yankees then in that 
country exhibited in the matter. The occasion was in- 
deed considered, and very justly too, as a great triumph. 
The emigrants from New England constituted at that 
time perhaps a third part of the whole population. 
These were located principally at or near the mouth of 
the Muskingum, and in the Connecticut Western Re- 
serve, with some few who had joined the emigrants from 
New Jersey, at and near Cincinnati. The central parts 
of the State, so far as settled at all, were occupied by 
emigrants from Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky; and 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 197 

the eastern section of it, by citizens principally from the 
Keystone State. The habits and character of the emi- 
grants from New Jersey, disposed them more to assimi- 
late with the people of New England, and it was prin- 
cipally through their aid, it is believed, that this favor- 
ite measure was carried. All others were violently and 
strongly prejudiced against the policy of it, and sought 
only to render it ridiculous and hateful. 

During a few years they utterly disregarded the law, 
or took no other notice of it, than to hold it up, and the 
whole system of township government, to the public 
derision, and as the proper subject of contemptuous bur- 
lesque. But, "a change came o'er the spirit of their 
dream !" and at the end of some ten or fifteen years, the 
mass of the people, even of those who had most derided 
it, would sooner I think have parted, and would now I 
think, sooner part with any other of their local institu- 
tions, than with that one. The outlines of this political 
contrivance have found place among the political estab- 
lishments of Michigan. The plan was but little favored 
by some of those in whose keeping, during the continu- 
ance of our colonial government, were placed the desti- 
nies of the nascent State ; yet the germ of it was plant- 
ed there. Its elements are with us. Let us fortify, 
enlarge, and embellish the system. Let us make it, 
gentlemen, what it was originally designed to be, the 
monitor and the friend of self-government — a school for 
young statesmen — at once the birth-place, the nurse, 
and the home of the free ! 

There is another topic, gentlemen, to which I desire 
briefly to invite your attention. It relates to the ex- 
tent and diffuseness in which the proprietary interests 
in the soil may have been distributed among the original 



108 THE LIFE OF 

settlers of New England, and to the laws denning the 
tenure and the principal incidents of real estate among 
them. The political character of a government may be 
judged of with no small degree of accuracy, from a re- 
view in these respects of the landed property within it, 
and the laws by which that interest is regulated. Nor 
will that actual condition of the real estate of any coun- 
try fail, with re-acting power, most materially to influ- 
ence prospectively the political character and principles 
of the Government. Where the proprietary interest in 
land is diffused, in comparatively small portions and 
generally throughout the masses of the population, and 
especially if the policy of the law tend to a continued 
and a still more general diffusion of it, the government 
itself can hardly fail to partake more or less extensively 
of a democratic character. 

In this view, it is not immaterial to inquire into the 
policy pursued in these respects by the early colonists 
of New England. As regards the manner of dividing 
the land in the first instance, among the original set- 
tlers, and the degree of equality which may have been 
observed in its partition, I am not sufficiently informed 
to enable me to speak advisedly. It is not, perhaps, 
unreasonable to suppose that different regulations may 
have obtained in different settlements, and at different 
times. The title to the country was generally acquired 
by large and aggregate companies, and by them from 
time to time, allotted among themselves and to all 
actual settlers. In the distributions made, a regard 
was always had, I believe, to a reasonable degree of 
equality; certain, at least it is, that no part of New 
England was disfigured by large manorial establish- 
ments, such as might be found in many of the other 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 199 

European colonies. On the contrary, all there were 
land holders, and to a very great extent, in nearly 
equal portions. 

Next after those I have already noticed, and in per- 
fect harmony with them, the most important feature, es- 
pecially in reference to its indirect and ulterior influences 
in the policy of New Englanders, consisted in the sim- 
plicity and decided character of their land laws. On 
reaching their place of refuge, the wild country of their 
adoption, the "Puritan" colonists left behind them, they 
discarded entirely all vestiges of the Feudal system. 
The allodium, the whole proprietary interest in the land 
vested in the grantee, and not the fee merely. It was 
made freely alienable deed, or by devise, and was sub- 
ject to be taken for debt upon execution ; but if not so 
disposed of, and saving to the surviving widow her rea- 
sonable share, it descended, upon the death of the ances- 
tor, to all the children. Thus repudiating entirely the 
feudal preferences of the male over the female heirs, 
and substituting for the exclusiveness of the right of pri- 
mogeniture, a double portion to the eldest son, the 
whole of the real estate of which the ancestor died 
seized was required to be divided equally among all. 
Nor did this qualification in favor of the eldest son long 
continue. Soon after, the estate was made to descend 
to all the children, share and share alike. 

This bold encroachment upon the fundamental law of 
the mother-country, prevented forever the growth among 
them of a landed aristocracy, and gave, of necessary con- 
sequence, a decided democratic cast of character to all 
the governments which grew up among the sons of the 
"Pikrinis." The causes which led to this wide devia- 
tion from the English canons of descent, have been the 



200 THE LIFE OF 

subject of various conjectures. In one of the large 
counties of England, a local custom has prevailed since 
before the Norman conquest, called "the custom of Gav- 
elkind in Kent," by which real property of which the 
ancestor died seized descends, in the event of there be- 
ing no will, in like manner to all the children in equal 
proportions. Many of the first colonists of New Eng- 
land, especially those who settled in Connecticut, migra- 
ted from that county. It has been conjectured, there- 
fore, with much plausibility, that this feature in their 
law may have been brought with them. Others again 
have supposed, and for reasons not less cogent, that the 
principle was borrowed from the Judaic code. 

In the frame of government adopted by the Pilgrim 
Fathers, and in the scope of the policy they pursued, 
the genius of the great law giver of the Jews, would 
seem strikingly apparent. Of the direct interposition 
of the Deity in behalf of the favored descendants of 
Abraham, it is not my design to speak. It would illy 
become me to do so. "I would not ascribe too much 
to Moses, nor too little to the Divine source of his wis- 
dom." But I do not think it irreverent to assume, that 
human action maybe stimulated by human motive; and 
in cases, too, where the end attained, is precisely that 
which Divine wisdom, through the unconscious agency 
of man, should have predetermined to effect. In this 
spirit, I desire to glance at some of the prominent fea- 
tures of the Judaic policy and history; we may then 
the more safely judge how far the code of the "Pilgrim 
Fathers," may have been borrowed from that source. 
I assume I lieu, that the motive, the proximate motive 
at least, which influenced the Israelites to depart from 
the home of their birth, was the rank oppression to 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 201 

which they were subjected there. I assume, that their 
purpose was to establish a government of their own, in 
a far distant land ; where they might worship God ac- 
cording to the dictates of their own consciences, and 
at the same time enjoy all that political freedom which 
is so conducive to the dignity and happiness of man. 
I assume, that the constitution of government prepared 
for them, by the wisdom of their great law-giver, was 
essentially republican, in all its leading features, and 
that it assumed the tvelfare of the whole community as 
the end of its establishment. It annihilated utterly, all 
artificial and tyrannical distinction of castes and estab- 
lished political equality as the fundamental principle of 
the State. It was a constitution founded on a religious 
basis, and assumed that a general diffusion of knowl- 
edge, as well as piety towards God, was necessary to 
its successful administration. It assigned, therefore, to 
the least numerous of tlie tribes, (that of Levi,) the 
special duty of inculcating both; for the functions they 
performed, and for which their superior education pecu- 
liarly fitted them, were both civil and religious. 

Each of the other tribes, though all for national pur- 
poses were as closely bound together as similarity of 
habits, manners, and character, and the sympathies of 
a common religion could bind them, governed neverthe- 
less, its own affairs in its own way, and as a separate 
republic. The hereditary head of the tribe constituted 
its chief executive officer. The heads of the different 
families, together with other distinguished men, proba- 
bly constituted the Provincial Assemblies, and dele- 
gates appointed by these, probably constituted the 
national Senate, the great Sanhedrim of the Jews. But 
notwithstanding this liberal distribution of power to 
26 



202 THE LIFE OF 

their provincial and to their national assemblies, the 
specific ratification of all great and public decrees, by 
the general voice of the people, seems invariably to 
have been demanded. The children of Israel were all 
free; and excepting this limited but acknowledged sub- 
ordination to the heads of their families and of their 
tribes, entirely equal. 

When, at length, they chose to desist, prematurely, 
and against the injunctions of their great law-giver, 
from completing their conquest of the promised land, 
by the total expulsion of their depraved and ferocious 
enemies, they made preparation for the partition among 
themselves of that which they had reduced to posses- 
sion. Prior to that final act, they were once more to 
pass upon their constitution of government, their funda- 
mental law. The whole people were accordingly gath- 
ered together, upon Mount Abal and upon Mount 
Gerizim. Their constitution and law, being connect- 
edly read to them, paragraph by paragraph, it was 
assented to with one voice, by acclamation; and under 
circumstances of the most impressive and extraordinary 
solemnity. They then proceeded to make partition of 
the conquered country, according to the requisitions of 
that fundamental law. The whole people had again 
been numbered, and the division was made according to 
population. First, different regions of country were set 
off, to the respective tribes, by the nation collectively, 
in order that the individual allotments to those of the 
same tribe might be together. The subdivision into 
these individual allotments, would seem, then, to have 
been consummated by the respective tribes; and to 
each individual as nearly as may be, it was assigned, 
share and share alike. The tribe of Levi was ex- 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 203 

eluded from this division. But in lieu- of their equal 
share, being teachers and ministers of religion, and 
having other duties to perform, certain tythes were 
granted to them and certain walled cities conveniently 
located, were assigned to them for their residence. 

The effect of this equal distribution among all, was 
an extraordinary equality of condition throughout the 
entire mass of the people. But to perpetuate that 
equality of condition as far as should comport with the 
prosperity of the whole, it was provided that the land 
of a deceased ancestor should be distributed in equal 
portions to all his sons, except that for a reason not very 
apparent, a double portion should be assigned to the eldest 
son. And to render such equality of condition more 
certain and continuous, it was further provided, that 
upon the occurring of every fiftieth year, all interven- 
ing alienations and transfers of land should become 
inoperative, and that the whole mass of the real estate 
of the country should revert to the heirs of the respec- 
tive original owners. All conveyances and transfers 
being made with reference to this peremptory requisition 
of their fundamental law, it is manifest that it could 
give no occasion to charges of individual wrong nor in- 
justice. We hear of the agrarian laws of ancient times. 
We hear of agrarian projects in modern times; but all 
the wisdom of ancient Rome, and all the speculations of 
modern Utopians, in point of efficiency, fall immeasurably 
behind the Judaic law of property, in this regard; and 
it would seem almost impossible to devise a scheme, 
which, without convulsing the very foundations of so- 
ciety, must operate so effectually and forever, to pre- 
vent the growing up of a powerful, oppressive, and per- 
manent aristocracv. 



204 THE LIFE OF 

Thus, gentlemen, I have endeavored to sketch briefly 
some of the leading principles of the Judaic law. Such 
digression from the main purpose of this address could 
hardly be excused, perhaps, but for the data which may 
be thus obtained by which the better to judge how far 
the institutions of the founders of New England were 
borrowed from that code, and the character of the insti- 
tutions themselves; and but for the sneers and ridicule 
so often sought to be cast upon their memory, because 
of their alleged desire to adopt the institutions and the 
character of the Jews as a model by which to fashion 
their own. It has been said of some of these colonists, 
and not without design to cast ridicule upon them, that 
in the adjustment of their organic law, they have form- 
ally ordained — " That the word of God shall be the on- 
ly rule to be attended unto, in ordering the affairs of 
government in the plantation." Of other colonists it 
has been said, that when assembled in character of sov- 
ereign legislators, they have with much solemnity re- 
solved "That the laws of Moses shall constitute their 
rule of decision, until they can find a better!" 

Imputations of this sort are not unfrequent, and are 
usually coupled with something, either in language or 
thought, quite well calculated to cast an air of ridicule 
upon their proceedings and their character. So far as 
they may have rendered themselves justly obnoxious to 
ridicule in this respect, let it rest upon their own mem- 
ory. But that there is much in the Jewish institutions, 
independent of their divine sanction, worthy of imita- 
tion, none will feel disposed to deny. That they con- 
tain provisions and enforce principles of extraordinary 
wisdom, exclusive of their wonderful adaptation to the 
people and to the times lor which they were designed, 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. . 205 

few will be inclined to question. To what extent any 
of these were successfully or wisely imitated by the 
Pilgrim Fathers ; what analogies may exist, or what 
points of resemblance may be traced between the insti- 
tutions of the people, I leave to others curious in such 
things to explore. My purpose is answered by calling 
your attention to the subject, as one worthy of future 
and philosophical research. 

There is another aspect, the one to which in the out- 
set I alluded, in which this precise topic will be found 
worthy to arrest our further scrutiny. Some three or 
four years after the first colony of Connecticut was es- 
tablished, (and I speak of Connecticut because I am 
more familiar with her history, not doubting but that 
her history illustrates in the matters to which I advert, 
the prevailing opinions and general sentiment of all the 
New England colonies.) some three or four years after 
the first permanent settlement of that State, (in 1635,) 
all the freemen of the State, then confined to the several 
districts of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield, met 
together personally, in one great convention, and for 
the sole purpose of forming for themselves a system of 
government — a constitution. It was so formed. Their 
first charter, obtained some fifty years afterwards, was 
but little else than a transcript of it, and fully affirmed 
all its leading principles. 

In the preamble of that constitution, the people de- 
clare themselves "one public state or commonwealth." 
In one of its many well digested articles, they declare 
•'that the supreme power of the commonwealth shall 
remain in the General Assembly, and that they only shall 
have the power to make laws or repeal them." After 
providing for magistrates and courts, and defining and 



206 THE LIFE OF 

regulating the judicial power, they declare, in another 
article, that they, (the said magistrates and courts,) 
"shall have power to administer justice according to the 
laws here" (in the General Assembly) ""established, and 
for want thereof, according to the rule of the word of God" 
Whether by this form of expression, reference is intend- 
ed to be made to the Mosaic law, or rather to those rules 
and principles of natural justice and equity which per- 
vade the New as well as the Old Testament, it is not 
my purpose here to inquire. But the point to which I 
would ask your attention, consists in the direct and em- 
phatic exclusion which the instrument contains of the 
law-making poiver of the mother-country. Even the com- 
mon law — proprio vigore — was never in force there. 

This constitution, (which for extraordinary ability, 
sound judgment and wisdom, in reference to the princi- 
ples which it affirms, and the detail of its provisions, 
may well compare with any of the most approved and 
elaborated systems of organic law of modern times,) 
continued down to a very late period, and for nearly 
two centuries, to constitute essentially the fundamental 
law of the State. And what is it, other than a solemn 
declaration, on the part of the people of Connecticut, 
that they intended to be a free people ? The moral of 
all I have said to you, gentlemen, (and they are but 
hints which I have thrown out on this prolific subject,) 
is, that in order to fit any people for free institutions 
and for self-government, they must be a virtuous people, 
their minds must be shaped by habit and stored with 
knowledge. The story of the New England colonists, 
illustrates the truth of this proposition. Virtuous as 
they were, and educated as they were, particidarly to 
understand and to transact their own public affairs, and 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 207 

living, as they did live, under institutions such as theirs, 
the people of New England must have been, what they 
always claimed to be, a free people! 

When Great Britain put forth her bold pretensions, 
and sought to burthen and oppress us — it was New Eng- 
land first — it was New England alivay§ that placed her- 
self upon her defence, and put back the impertinent at- 
tempt. It was James Otis, a son of New England, and 
not Patrick Henry, who gave the first impulse to our 
glorious revolution! And I may be excused for saying 
that it has been matter of surprise, and of equal regret 
with me, that the American public are so little familiar 
with the life and character of that pure patriot and emi- 
nently great man. If the trial of John Hampden tend- 
ed more than any other event, to rouse the dormant en- 
ergies of the people of England ; if the arguments em- 
ployed in that celebrated trial tended more than all 
things else, to concentrate the public opinion and unite 
the body of the nation in its resistance to the tyranny 
of the House of Stuart; the discussions that grew out 
of the application made to the highest judicial tribunal 
of Massachusetts, by the officers of the Crown, to obtain 
its sanction to the issue and service, of what they were 
pleased to call "writs of assistance," were not less ef- 
fective in rousing the spirit, and stimulating the innate 
love of freedom of the sons of Puritans. The case was 
tried at Boston, in February, 1761 — it involved cdl the 
principles upon which the American revolution ultimate- 
ly turned, all indeed that is valuable in the rights of 
private property and personal security. The arguments 
of Mr. Otis on that occasion, in favor of the public lib- 
erties, were looked upon every where through New 
England with the highest favor. They produced an en- 



208 THE LIFE OF 

thusiasm of feeling which pervaded the continent, and 
which did not cease until the revolution was consum- 
mated.* As a statesman and the popular leader of the 
patriot party in the Provincial Legislature, Mr. Otis 
stood most distinguished and without a rival. His 
prescience and great search of thought, seemed equal 
to the brilliancy and power of his forensic and popular 
efforts. 

In a communication to a distinguished personage in 
England, dated in 1768, he sums up his views on the 
condition of the colonies in these impressive and pro- 

*The eloquent biographer of James Otis remarks in reference to this suit, 
that "no cause in the annals of colonial jurisprudence, had hitherto ex- 
cited more public interest, and none had given rise to such powerful argu- 
ment. When the profound learning of the advocate, the powers of wit, 
fancy, and pathos, with which he could copiously illustrate and adorn that 
learning ; and the ardent character of his eloquence is considered ; and above 
all, a deep foresight of the meditated oppression and tyranny that would be 
gratified by the success of this hateful application : When all these circum- 
stances are recalled, the power and magnificence of this oration may be im- 
agined. With a knowledge of the topics that were involved, and the fearless 
energy with which they were developed and elucidated : the time when it oc- 
curred, and the accompanying circumstances; every person will join with 
President Adams, when he says, I do say, in the most solemn manner, that 
Mr. Otis' oration against ' writs of assistance,' breathed into this nation the 
breath of life ! The room was filled with all the officers of government and 
the principal citizens, to hear the arguments in a cause that inspired the 
deepest solicitude. The case was opened by Mr. Gridley, who argued it 
with much learning, ingenuity, and dignity; urging every point and authori- 
ty that could be found, after the most diligent search, in favor of the custom- 
house petition ; making all his reasoning depend on this consideration — ' if 
the parliament of Great Britain is the sovereign legislator of the British Em- 
pire?' He was followed by Mr. Thatcher, on the opposite side, whose reas- 
oning was ingenious and able, delivered in a tone of great mildness and 
moderation. But, in the language of President Adams, Otis was a flame of 
tin : With a promptitude of classical allusions, a depth of research, a rapid 
summary of historical events and dates, a profusion of legal authorities, a 
prophetic glance of his eyes into futurity, and a rapid torrent of impetuous 
eloquence, he hurried away all before him: American Independence was then 
'iml there born!" etc. 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 209 

phetic words : " Our fathers were a good people ; we 
have been a free people; and if you tvill not let us remain 
so any longer, tve shall be a great people!" Mr. Otis 
was unquestionably one of the master-spirits of the age 
in which he lived; but his bold and successful career 
was destined to be prematurely and suddenly arrested. 
In 1769, he became the victim of a brutal and ferocious 
assault made upon him by some minions of the Crown, 
then officers in the British army. The wounds then 
inflicted upon him he never recovered from, and with 
broken health and impaired intellect, he was obliged to 
retire, in a great measure, from public life. But the 
principles he had advocated were not forgotten, nor the 
benefit of his example lost upon his countrymen. Nor 
indeed could they be; for the elements of political 
freedom had been planted too deeply in all their insti- 
tutions; and the spirit of independence had pervaded 
all classes of society ! 

The last conversation to which I listened with lively 
interest, before I left the city of Washington, was a 
friendly discussion between certain Members of Con- 
gress, touching the respective claims of Rhode Island 
and Connecticut, as to which of the two States was 
entitled to the honor of originating the first formal legis- 
lative Declaration of Independence. It had been demon- 
strated, and was conceded, that each was prior in point 
of time, to that of the celebrated State paper which 
emanated from the old Continental Congress, on the 
Fourth of July, 1776. But it was a question, which of 
the two States I have named took that bold ground 
first. The act of the Connecticut Legislature was not 
accessible ; and a Member of Congress from that State, 
promised, on his return home, to cause the public arch- 
27 



210 THE LIFE OF 

ives to be examined, with a view to ascertain its date. 
I have no knowledge of the result; but I am inclined 
to think that the honor belongs to Rhode Island. The 
act of the last mentioned State I had previously seen, 
and admired. It was passed by the Rhode Island 
Legislature, in May, 1776; some two months before 
the same decisive step was taken by Congress. It is 
to be found printed in a document of the 28th Congress, 
(before which body it had recently before been pro- 
duced,) on 11 th, and also on the 26th page of "No. 
581.— 1st Ses. 28th Cong., Ho. of Reps." 

As an interesting historical relic, and as a proud 
testimonial of the courage, firmness, and devoted pa- 
triotism of the people of Rhode Island, I had, when it 
was first printed by Congress, transmitted the docu- 
ment containing it to you. But my admiration of it 
being much increased by its perusal, and a review of 
the imposing, fearful, and extraordinary circumstances 
under which this bold measure had been taken; and 
thinking that it might perhaps have escaped your par- 
ticular observation, I marked the page and turned down 
a leaf, and sent to you a second copy of the same docu- 
ment. And I took some merit to myself, gentlemen, 
for thus pressing it upon you; for although it may 
have remained unnoticed among the mass of Congres- 
sional documents, which probably encumber your shelves, 
yet when you shall have made it the subject of close 
inspection and study, you will find it entirely worthy 
of all the praise which has been bestowed upon it, and 
upon the brave and noble spirits to whose firm, gener- 
ous, and devoted patriotism we are indebted for taking 
so noble a stand. Although the document may exhibit 
something of the quaintness, in style of the olden time, 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 211 



yet as .a business paper, nothing could be more appro- 
priate. I know of nothing superior to it. It contains 
nothing superfluous — nothing which ought not to be 
found there. It comprises all that should be in it; it 
covers the whole ground. With a becoming energy, 
terseness, and dignity, it speaks the sentiments of men 
who, with James Otis, would have announced to the 
mother-country, and to the world, that " Our fathers 
were a good people; we have been a free people; and if 
you will not let us remain so any longer, we shall be a 
great people /" 



212 THE LIFE OF 



MARIETTA. 

The seventieth anniversary of the landing of the 
Pilgrim Fathers of the West, was celebrated at Mari- 
etta, on the thirteenth of April, 1858. The attendance 
was large, the Hon. Thomas Ewing delivered the Oration, 
and the whole celebration passed off with great eclat. 
Among the invited "Pioneers" residing in various parts 
of the country at the time, who could not be present on 
the occasion, was Mr. Woodbridge; and by way of show- 
ing his affection for his old friends at Marietta, he for- 
warded to them the following interesting letter : 

Fellow-Citizens of Marietta : — 

It was my purpose to have met you personally on the 
occasion of this interesting anniversary. It has been 
within a few days only that I have felt myself compelled 
to relinquish that purpose. The relations which, many 
years ago, bound me so closely to this community, I de- 
sire not to forget. And I will not suppress the avowal, 
that it would have been exceedingly gratifying to me, 
if, in the renewed spirit of by-gone years, I could now 
have exhibited to you such a picture of your early his- 
tory, combining with it my own personal recollection 
of events, as should be suitable to the occasion, and 
worthy of you. But "man proposes — God disposes!" 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 213 

The ravages of disease, combined with the infirmities 
of increasing age, have rendered it improper and unsafe 
to attempt the journey which would be necessary to en- 
able me to meet you. This, though my loss, perhaps, 
is your gain. For there are gentlemen among you more 
conversant with all the topics connected with the great 
event you are now assembled to commemorate, than I 
am, and who have clearer voices and sounder lungs. To 
them I must refer mvself. 

But there is one obligation I may redeem. It is, that 
I should tender to you my earnest and grateful acknowl- 
edgements for the kind, thoughtful, and generous invi- 
tation which your committee have been pleased to ex- 
tend to me, and which authorized me to unite with you 
this clay in commemorating the anniversary of your 
great State. And ought I not to feel a common inter- 
est with you in that great event? This is the country 
of my childhood, and of my middle life. It was the 
home of my revered father, and of my sainted mother. 
It was the dwelling place of beloved sisters, and of es- 
timable brothers, one of whom has but recently depart- 
ed from you ; whom you all knew and esteemed, for his 
life was passed among you in acts of benevolence and 
Christian charity to the end. This was the home too 
of kind-hearted fellow-citizens, who first, a long time 
ago, took me by the hand, led me gently forward into 
public life, and upon whose favors I leaned for support, 
and to whose unshaken confidence I owe, in a great 
measure, what little of distinction I may have acquired 
as a public man. It will not, then, be deemed arrogant 
in me, I trust, that I too should claim a common inter- 
est in that great event which you have assembled here 
to celebrate. And what is that event? Why, seventy 



214 THE LIFE OF 

years ago this day, there landed on this — the then verge 
of an interminable wilderness — a few bold and fearless 
spirits, who established here the broad foundations of 
your powerful State. Here in the very midst of the 
great war-path of the savages, red as it still was with 
the blood of the hapless victims of their cruel warfare, 
these men planted themselves, and laid deep the corner- 
stone of that great social and political edifice which 
now rears its gigantic and beautiful proportions high, 
among the proudest of the sister States! 

Let not the fact then be forgotten, or obscured, or 
lost sight of, that here — on this spot — the first Anglo- 
Saxon community in this broad land began; and that 
from this prolific germ, then and here planted, has 
sprung that wide-spread Christian civilization which 
now adorns and blesses the great North-West. 

But who were they, who braving the terrors of Indian 
warfare, and rising superior to the privations, and hard- 
ships, and perils incident to a settlement in a far-off wil- 
derness, had the rare courage, the temerity ', to conceive, 
and to give effect to, so bold and romantic a plan? 

I saw advertised, not long ago, a book entitled " The 
Romance of Western History." The title attracted my 
attention. It does not purport to contain a continuous 
history of the West; but is made up of detached 
sketches of particular events, of acts of individual cour- 
age, heroic valor, and of military prowess. The recital 
is not without interest; yet, I closed the book with a 
feeling of disappointment and pain; for, throughout the 
work, T could see no allusion — not the slightest — to that 
first great epoch in our history, which you have now 
met to commemorate. The main purpose of the work 
seemed to be, to eulogize Kentucky and the descend- 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 215 

ants of Virginia and North Carolina. To all this, no 
exception could be justly taken, if that eulogy were not 
so glaringly exclusive. The Kentuckians (who will doubt 
it?) are generous, high-spirited, and bold. The Scotch- 
Irish, of North Carolina, were an honest, industrious, 
and brave people. The French Huguenots, who, after 
the cruel revocation of the "Edict of Nantz," found 
refuge there, were of a gallant race ; and there were 
none more brave than the Cavaliers of Virginia. Let 
them be praised then; "let honor be rendered to whom 
honor is due." But was there no courage, no merit, no 
talent, no heroic valor, elsewhere? Were all the virtues 
which embellish and adorn the character of man, concen- 
trated alone among the descendants of Virginia and 
North Carolina? George Washington, indeed, was peer- 
less. As a domestic and as a public man, as a states- 
man and as a warrior, I need not attempt to describe 
him. Language has already been exhausted in at- 
tempts adequately to treat of his high character. His 
birth-place and his grave are in Virginia. Let her ex- 
ult in that high honor. But let it be remembered that 
Ids aspirations were not confined to the limits of a single 
State. Ms home was the Union — that Union which, 
under Providence, he was mainly instrumental in crea- 
ting. There was "no East and no West, no North and 
no South," for him. His affections were not limited to 
the narrow localities of his birth-place. He was equal- 
ly at home in New England as at Mt. Vernon ; and I 
feel that nothing is hazarded by the remark, that he 
was as much believed and confided in by the New Eng- 
landers, as by his compatriots of Virginia. But it is 
nevertheless a truth, that during the period of the 
Revolution, there was no deficiency of talent, anywhere 



216 THE LIFE OF 

throughout the revolted colonies, nor of merit suited to 
the exigency, in every department of life; comprising 
all jtarts of our extended country, there existed in it a 
constellation of great men, such as the world never be- 
fore had seen. It was the crisis that produced them. 
No. I should rather say it was in the providence of a 
merciful God that they were raised up and fitted for 
that great crisis. If they were found in Virginia, so 
also were they found among the descendants of the 
Puritans. New England abounded in them. George 
Rogers Clark, whom the writer of the " Romance of 
Western History," delighted to praise, was a bold, in- 
trepid, and fearless warrior; was not Ethan Allen as 
adroit, as energetic, and as fearless as he was? 

Patrick Henry was an ardent advocate for freedom, 
full of talent and eloquence beyond most men. Was 
not James Otis his equal in all these attributes? Read 
his life and the history of his times, and you will not 
pronounce him the inferior of Henry. John Marshall 
was an eminently great and good man. For many years 
at the head of the Judiciary, he, more than any other 
Jurist, gave compactness, and practical harmony, and 
strength to our then untried constitution. [He made no 
"Dred Scot" decisions.) But, in the short period of 
his judicial life, did not Oliver Ellsworth disclose simi- 
lar elements of intellectual power? Nor were the indi- 
cations few or feeble, that equal eminence awaited him, 
if he had continued on the Bench. As an accomplished 
Jurist too, their contemporary, Theophilus H. Parsons, 
was I suppose the inferior of no man then living. 

But I refrain from enumerating the multitude of dis- 
tinguished men of that era. The attempt would be tedi- 
ous, and out of place. Virginia exults, as she has a 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 217 

right to do, in her Thomas Jefferson, and James Madi- 
son, and others of her distinguished citizens ; but is the 
lineage of the Puritans to be repudiated? Are the 
Adamses to be forgotton? Ave the Benjamin Franklins, 
and Fisher Ames, and Josiah Quincy, and Roger Sher- 
man and the Trumbulls and the Griswolds — are these 
to be obliterated from our remembrance? And of the 
military men of the period — who has not heard of the 
"wolf catcher?" Who has not heard of the bravery and 
the military skill of the Putnams? Of the accomplish- 
ments, and of the promise of future greatness of the la- 
mented Warren? And of the genius, and the fertility 
of resource, and the successful energies of the heroic 
Greene? to whom, though a New England man, the 
South owes — and generously accords, too — so much of 
gratitude and praise. Look at "Lee's Memoirs of the 
War in the Southern Department," and you will rise 
from that reading, with the full conviction, that not one 
of the brilliant Marshals of France surpassed, or even 
equalled him, in all those faculties which go to consti- 
tute a great and successful General. 

But, it is time this digression were ended. Who were 
those, I have asked, who, on the seventh day of April, 
1788, landed from their bark, the second "Mayflower," 
and in the spirit of the " Pilgrims of the Plymouth Rock," 
commenced their bold and romantic work, of forming 
in the bosom of this then remote wilderness a new com- 
monwealth? You already realize who they were. They 
were a band of war-worn veterans ! They were of those 
men, officers and soldiers of the Revolution, who had 
borne the brunt of a fearful contest, with one of the 
most powerful nations of the world, for eight long years ! 
Men who, upon their country's call, had left their homes 
28 



218 THE LIFE OF 

and their respective occupations to stand forward in its 
defense! Men who had suffered all the miseries that 
cold and hunger, and want, and absolute destitution 
could inflict! Men who, side by side, had faced the 
aggressors of their country in battle until, through inde- 
scribable suffering, they had gloriously conquered and 
driven out the invader, and by the favors of Providence 
had vindicated the freedom, secured the safety, and es- 
tablished the independence of the country! Would you 
comprehend the influences which brought these men to- 
gether and the spirit in which they carried on that con- 
test? Look at them at Bunker Hill, and at the battle 
of Lexington, and at the crossing of the Delaware, and 
at the battles of Princeton, and Monmouth, and Sarato- 
ga, and Yorktown, and wheresoever else they met the 
foe ! Would you desire to know how much they suffered 
from hunger and destitution, and the inclemencies of the 
seasons? Look at them in their cold winter quarters at 
Valley Forge, and their inarch to the Delaware, and 
through the Jerseys, and wheresoever they were re- 
quired to go! And then, when finally the last battle 
was fought and won. and rumors of approaching peace 
had reached them, let it be remembered, these same 
brave men were told they would be disbanded and might 
go home! Home? — their homes had almost forgotten 
them, and their old occupations in civil life were gone. 
With health impaired and fortunes wasted, they were 
strangers there; tvhat, then, would they go home to? 

But there was another cause of disquietude — the more 
afflictive because it was coupled with a deep sense of in- 
justice and of the ingratitude of that country which 
they had .served so faithfully! The pittance of their 
monthly pay as officers and soldiers had for a long time 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 219 

been in a great measure withholden from them; and 
what small portion of those monthly wages had been 
discharged, had been paid to them in the paper money 
of that period, which, as the war approached its termi- 
nation, had become comparatively worthless. They had 
not even funds to defray the expense of travelling back 
to their long abandoned firesides! What, then, could 
these brave men do? They who, when oppression and 
fear had come upon their country had bared their breasts 
in its defense, and gallantly stood between it and the 
tyrants who would enslave it? Must they, its true and 
brave defenders, turn mendicants and beg their way? 
But they had not yet been disbanded; their arms were 
yet in their hands; their swords were yet at their sides; 
and acting together, there was nothing in the country 
that could stand up against them. They might thus 
render to themselves that justice which their country 
withheld. They might take by force that reasonable 
subsistence which as yet the country had denied them. 
Should they do so? Dreadful alternative! 

Would you look more minutely into this matter? 
Read again, then, the "Newburg Letters." You will 
see there the wrongs they endured and the magnitude 
of the temptations held out to them. Ponder, too, upon 
the advice given them by their great and noble-hearted 
chief. Look especially at the course which swayed 
them at the great assemblage of officers, when met to 
deliberate upon the course they should pursue; and you 
will not cease to admire the noble, self-sacrificing spirit 
which they exhibited ; for another conflict awaited them 
— another victory remained for them to win, more mo- 
mentous, more glorious than any they had yet achieved 
— a victory over themselves. Falling back upon their 



220 THE LIFE OF 

own integrity — taking counsel of their own patriotism, 
and rising superior to the great temptation which loomed 
up before them, they spurned the insidious counsels of 
the writer of the " Newburg Letters," and trusting in 
their God, rather than in the delusive promises of what 
seemed to them an ungrateful country, they calmly, 
without threats, and without ostentation laid down their 
arms, suffered themselves to be disbanded, and silently 
dispersing, made their way through gloomy forebodings 
of penury and want, to their respective and long neglec- 
ted homes. 

Such were the men from among whom the first Anglo- 
Saxon colonists of the old North- West have come; and sure- 
ly it is glorious to boast of such an origin ! 

I have ventured to impute to the officers of the 
Revolutionary Army that they believed that their ser- 
vices were not justly appreciated; and that their long 
continued efforts and devoted fidelity to the country 
had been requited by cruel ingratitude. Appearances 
gave too much color to such imputations. A word of 
explanation seems appropriate. Large arrearages of 
pay had long been due to the army, and the amount of 
suffering which resulted from that delinquency was in- 
describably great. Petition after petition, couched in 
the most urgent but respectful terms, had been presen- 
ted to Congress, beseeching that body to grant relief; 
but it was all fruitless. The sufferers — officers as well 
as men — could not obtain from those public function- 
aries even statements of existing balances, which, if 
they had possessed them, might, by negdtiation, have 
been made, perhaps, partially available. Yet that Con- 
gress was the only body that could afford relief, and to 
that Congress only was the army responsible. The 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 221 

odium of such cruel delinquency very naturally there- 
fore, attached to that body. Nevertheless, that Con- 
gress consisted of great and good men; men who would 
not willingly have seen that army suffer; who were, in 
fact, incapable of such toilful ingratitude. But they 
were in that respect powerless. They could, indeed, 
(three-fourths of the States concurring) make requisitions 
upon the States, demanding of each its proportionate 
amount of funds, to defray the expenses of that dread- 
ful war; and in behalf of the suffering army, they did 
make and reiterate those requisitions; but they were 
utterly destitute of all means to coerce compliance with 
them, and they were not complied with. The vaunted 
"State rights" policy then prevailed. A State and the 
people of a State were not to be coerced, even to per- 
formance of simple justice, to an army which alone had 
saved them from utter ruin. As the prospect of a gen- 
eral pacification brightened, the delinquent States be- 
came less and less disposed to comply with this duty of 
justice and of mercy. The paper money of that period, 
in the control of Congress, had long before been ex- 
hausted, and had indeed become utterly worthless ; and 
the arrearages of the army could not be paid. The old 
confederation, although during the stringent pressure 
of the war it could be kept together, as that pressure 
became less intense by the approach of peace, became 
entirely inefficient; it had come to be called, as you 
know, gentlemen, "a rope of sand." 

But in addition to their small monthly pay, the offi- 
cers and soldiers of the Continental army, were promised 
also, what was called their "bounty land," of which the 
smallest quantity to which each soldier was entitled, 
was, I think, one hundred acres; and the quantity to 



THE LIFE OF 



the officers was increased in the proportion of their rank 
in the army. 

When by the peace of 1783, the immense region of 
"unseated" land, north-west of the Ohio was transfer- 
red by Great Britain to the United States ; ample 
means seemed to exist to meet the claims of the army, 
and to redeem the obligation Congress had imposed 
upon itself, to convey the promised bounty lands. The 
time for disbanding the army was at hand, and seeing 
the penury and hardships that awaited them at their 
old homes, among the hills of New England, and casting 
their thoughts forward, through the gloom that surroun- 
ded them, into the future, the project was started 
among the troops of the New England lines of obtain- 
ing an assignment of their bounty lands in a body, 
within the region of territory thus required by Congress, 
and of colonizing it at once. The project became an 
interesting and a favorite one, and measures were forth- 
with taken to ascertain if Congress would give its sanc- 
tion to the plan. 

But difficulties Avere found to exist. They preven- 
ted its immediate consummation. That whole region 
of country was found to be comprehended within the 
respective limits of the old charters of several of the 
States. These limits clashed with each other, and all 
were in conflict with that title of the Crown of Great 
Britain which had been transferred by the treaty to the 
Union. Tf the claiming Stales should persist in their 
respective pretensions, however unreasonable they might 
seem, (seeing that all the unsettled country, within the 
national limits — without as w r ell as within the North 
Western territory, had been acquired and secured by 
the joint efforts, and treasure, and blood of all the States 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 223 

collectively,) angry contests, which it was of the utmost 
importance to prevent, would unquestionably arise; the 
proposed assignment of the "Bounty lands," was post- 
poned; and in an appeal to the justice and magnanimity 
of the claiming States, (New York, Virginia, Connecti- 
cut and Massachusetts, especially,) Congress most earn- 
estly proposed to them that they should at once cede to 
the Union their respective claims to so much of these 
unsettled lands as were within the North Western Terri- 
tory. This prudent and conservative measure, so reas- 
onable and so just in itself, was at length, (but with 
reservations, which still left the claiming States proprie- 
tors of immense tracts, without as well as within the N. 
W. Territory,) fully consummated; and this temporary 
difficulty being thus removed, the original product of the 
officers and soldiers of the New England lines, and up- 
on an enlarged plan, was revived. 

Gen. Putnam and Gen. Tupper of Massachusetts, first 
gave renewed impulse to it, by a notice in the public 
newspapers designating times and places at which those 
favorable to the plan should meet and agree upon some 
system of operations. The association of the "Ohio 
Company" was formed. The proposed common stock 
of the Company being divided into a thousand or more 
shares, large numbers of the officers and soldiers of the 
Revolutionary Army became parties to it. Agents 
were appointed to prefer anew their application to Con- 
gress. Their efforts were successful, and a contract 
was entered into for the purchase of a million and one- 
half of acres, upon terms which it was believed were in 
every respect satisfactory to the Company, while they 
were at the same time most highly advantageous to the 
General Government. 



224 THE LIFE OF 

The Bounty lands accruing to the officers and soldiers 
of the army were applied, acre for acre, towards its pay- 
ment; evidences of the public debt, and the liquidated 
pecuniary demands of the shareholders, were in like 
manner so applied. Thus finally removing, in a great 
measure, those grounds of complaint which had occa- 
sioned such deep distress and discontents of so alarm- 
ing a character. . 

In other respects, too, the contract was peculiarly 
gratifying. It provides that throughout the whole tract 
one mile square in each surveyed township should be 
conveyed to the Directors of the Company in trust for 
various purposes ; that one other mile square in each sur- 
veyed township should be conveyed in t?*ust for schools ; 
and that two entire townshipr of six miles square each, 
should be conveyed in trust for the endowment and sup- 
port of a University. And seeing the exposed condi- 
tion of those bold colonists in the depths of the wilder- 
ness, and virtually in an enemy's country; and consider- 
ing the national importance of checking in future those 
predatory incursions of the Indians, which for nearly 
fifty years before were wont to carry terror and dismay 
into the heart of the country, and to mark the whole 
frontier of Pennsylvania and Virginia with fire, and 
Mood, and devastation; Congress deemed it proper to 
direct that a quantity not exceeding one hundred thou- 
sand acres, part of the million and one-half so contracted 
for should be conveyed to the Directors in trust, to be 
gratuitously granted by them in one hundred acre tracts 
to such able-bodied men, (members of the Company or 
not) as should consent to submit to the hardships and 
incur the hazards of an actual residence there. Thus 
constituting of those bold adventurers a shield of de- 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 225 

fense for those exposed and wasted frontiers, more per- 
manently effectual than armies or military posts! For 
the residue of the entire tract, falling short of a million 
of acres, it was expected that the Company would pay 
(principally in army warrants for bounty lands, and in 
evidences of the public debt as already intimated) at 
the rate of about two-thirds of a dollar per acre. 

Under such auspices, this establishment began. Was 
tried courage, was military experience necessary to give 
security to the embryo colony ? The colonists consis- 
ted principally of the veterans of the Revolution! Were 
elevated names, was a high grade in military, social, or 
political life, desirable in order to give greater assurance 
of safety, and of the future blessing of an intelligent and 
well ordered society? General Putnam and General 
Tupper, General Parsons and General Varnam, were 
among them. Colonel Sargent, Colonel Cushing, Col- 
onel Nye, Colonel Meigs, Colonel Oliver, and multi- 
tudes, whom it would be useless to numerate, of such as 
has been officers in the army of the Revolution, among 
whom were men of finished education — of polished ad- 
dress, and of high intellectual attainments, constituted 
an extraordinary portion of this most extraordinary 
band of the first Anglo-Saxon colonists of your great 
State. Nevertheless, clouds hung over the infant es- 
tablishment — its destines were yet shrouded in the 
future ! 

But the newly arrived colonists commenced with 
spirit the work which was before them. Self-protect- 
ion, they knew to be one of the first injunctions of our 
nature. In accordance with that injunction, and after 
erecting a temporary shelter for themselves, they began 
and accomplished formidable military works upon an 
29 



226 THE LIFE OF 

elevated piece of ground commanding the surrounding 
plain. They were of ample dimensions, and contained 
block-houses and barracks sufficient for the accommo- 
dation and protection of all the families in the upper 
part of the growing city. They were surrounded by a 
double row of palisades, and by a frowning array of 
firmly anchored abattis ; and constructed under the artis- 
tic eye of the veterans of the late army, these works — 
modernly called "the stockade," might proudly have 
bid defiance to the whole congregated masses of the 
savages of the North-West. 

The lower, or commercial part of the incipient town, 
at the junction of the two rivers, was defended by three 
or four well built block-houses. One of which was 
upon the border of each of the two rivers; and the 
other upon the outer lines of a semi-circular course of 
high and substantial pickets, set deep and firmly in the 
ground, and which, surrounding the dwellings and build- 
ings within that inhabited section of the town, connected 
from river to river, the different block-houses con- 
structed for its protection. Nor were the military 
habits of the colonists at all forgotten, nor pretermitted. 
The militia was organized at an early period; and 
under the immediate command of that most gallant and 
accomplished officer, Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, (of the 
Rhode Island line;) the men were mustered, guards 
were posted, and the whole were kept under as perfect 
drill as other indispensable avocations of busy life 
would permit. 

The military works were too formidable to be at- 
tacked, but the Indians were hovering about them, 
watching for their prey. The small fields adjoining 
the residences of the inhabitants, and their lines of 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 227 

pickets, and which, for their support, they were obliged 
to cultivate, it was not prudent to approach, unless 
fully armed. They were accustomed to work them 
alternately, in companies, helping one another; and 
while some were at work, others were keeping guard; 
for the most untiring vigilance was necessary, to guard 
against surprise, and secret ambush, and murderous as- 
saults upon any who might, incautiously, be led beyond 
the reach of instant support. 

Those trials have happily passed away, and I hasten 
to other topics. "Of all dispositions and habits which 
lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are 
indispensable supports." So we are very gravely ad- 
monished in the " Farewell Address." But, though wise- 
ly and opportunely said, yet to a New Englander, there 
was no novelty in the sentiment. The axiom was at 
the foundation of the whole policy of the early Puritans. 
It was the stimulating principle of the "Pilgrims of the 
Plymouth Rock." They knew that no people who dis- 
regarded the impulses of religion, and who habitually 
allowed themselves to forget their responsibility to God, 
were ever permitted, since the world began, to enjoy 
uninterrupted prosperity. All history, both sacred and 
profane, confirms this momentous fact. The agents of 
the Company were not forgetful of the admonition this 
grave sentiment conveyed. They accordingly urged upon 
Congress — as that body of great and good men regarded 
the well-being and the future prosperity of those bold 
and adventurous colonists, and thus, under their auspi- 
ces, were about to enter upon so hazardous an experi- 
ment — that they would make the munificent provision 
which has been mentioned, of granting, viz : one mile 
square in each surveyed township, making in all more I 



228 THE LIFE OF 

suppose (I do not know how much more) than forty 
thousand acres of land for religious purposes. This 
grant was made freely and cheerfully, I believe; and 
superadded to that, and to the honor of that wise and 
provident body be it said, an equal quantity was grant- 
ed for the support of schools, forever, within the limits 
of the purchase; and a yet larger quantity for the en- 
dowment of a Universy. Without intelligence, how 
could those free institutions of government, in the sup- 
port of which they had so long and so earnestly con- 
tended, be duly appreciated? Without a general diffu- 
sion of knowledge among the masses, how could they 
be fitted for self-government, and for the exercise of 
those high powers which political equality and freedom 
confer? Hardly, therefore, had those colonists become 
settled in their new abodes, when those who had con- 
trol of their affairs, had taken measures in regard to 
both those vitally important objects. The services of 
an amiable young clergyman, (the Rev. Mr. Story,) had 
been secured for the colony, and he soon arrived among 
them. In the clangor of arms, " The laws," 'tis said, 
" are silent." It is not so of the proper exercise of re- 
ligious duties. Every Sabbath the militia was duly 
mustered for parade; and it is among the earliest recol- 
lections of my boyhood, to have seen them, to my spe- 
cial admiration and wonder, marching, "armed to the 
teeth" — with measured step, and by the sound of the 
drum and fife, to the largest of the central block-houses, 
where divine service with all due solemnity, was regu- 
larly performed. Cromwell admonished his Puritan 
soldiers, in the olden time, that whenever they attended 
divine service, (as they were always accustomed scrup- 
ulously to do,) at the same time "to take care and keep 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 229 

their powder dry." The colonists acted in the spirit of 
that order; for who could know at what moment an 
alarm of " Indians," might be given ? It was incumbent 
upon them, therefore, at all times to be prepared; and 
when, in a body, they attended church, they came fully 
armed and duly marshalled as if for battle. But other 
cares were not forgotten. The schoolmaster should not 
be behind the time ; and blessed be the memory of those 
who first transplanted into the Great West the New 
England system of popular education ! That was a sys- 
tem sui generis. There was nothing like it : and to a 
free people, who would seek to preserve their freedom 
through all future time, in its pristine purity and vigor, 
it was indispensable. What organized band of Puritans, 
indeed, have been known to migrate without the school- 
master in their train? The school lands had not yet 
become available; but other resources were applied; and 
from the first establishment of the colony there was no 
want unsupplied, of well-conducted schools. The block- 
houses at "the point" were built, as I have already 
stated, as places of protection, and as means of defense. 
One of them was usually occupied on the Sabbath, as a 
house of prayer. It was not an undue desecration of it, 
I think, that on other days it should be used for a school. 
A Mr. Baldwin a graduate, I believe, of one of the east- 
ern colleges, sent out I suppose by the provident cura- 
tors of the colony as a teacher, kept school there. Un- 
der his encouraging tuition, (for I was one of his little 
pupils,) I was myself enabled to blunder through some 
of the elementary rules of grammar, and to struggle 
through with varying success against that formidable 
monster the multiplication table. He was an amiable 
man, and much beloved by all his pupils ; and withal, 



230 THE LIFE OF 

at least in their untutored judgments, he was a man of 
prodigious learning : — 

And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, 
That one small head could carry all he knew! 

Where this gentleman moved to and what was his ulti- 
mate destiny, I do not know. 

At "the stockade," higher branches of learning were 
taught, for a time at least, by Major Anselm Tupper, 
of the old Revolutionary army. This gentleman had 
the reputation of being a superior classical scholar, as 
certainly he possessed a refined and polished address. 
As the population of the colony expanded, and its set- 
tlements within the purchase increased in number, 
means of education were everywhere abundantly pro- 
vided, and everywhere within the purchase, the badge 
of a New England people was visible. 

Fellow-citizens, I have thus had something to say 
concerning the origin of that colonial establishment 
which you have this day assembled to commemorate. 
I have had something to say concerning the general 
character of those good and brave men who had the 
boldness to conceive, and the untiring perseverance to 
consummate so momentous an undertaking. I hope 
that what I have said will bear investigation, and be 
found sustained by the truth. I have also endeavored 
to trace the foot-prints of those men in the measures 
they pursued to guard against hostile attack, and to se- 
cure the safety of their infant establishment ; in their 
endeavors to secure to the incoming population the en- 
during benefits of a religious cast of character, and to 
establish among them the New England system of uni- 
versal education. There remains but one topic more 
to which I desire, briefly, to advert, before I close a 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 231 

course of remarks which, I fear, has already taxed your 
patience too much. 

Among all the plans of political organization which 
the wit of man has ever devised, to prepare and fit a 
religious and intelligent people for the management and 
control of a free, republican government, such as ours 
was intended to be ; there is no one, I think, at all com- 
parable with that which subdivides your whole country 
into small political communities, called "towns," or 
"townships," and vests in the inhabitants of each, when 
assembled in general meetings, the power to regulate, 
and, subject only to the provisions of the general law, 
to control their own internal police and prudential af- 
fairs. Thus constituting in fact, of every neighborhood 
in the State, a distinct and separate government of its 
own, purely democratic in its character, and in which 
all electors, inhabitants of the town, may personally and 
freely participate. 

This is, in no wise, the wild speculation of a political 
dreamer. The system has been tested by the experi- 
ence of some two hundred years, throughout the New- 
England States; and its usefulness, and entire safety, 
by that experience, has been fully established. These 
little communities, indeed, bear relations to the State 
very similiar to those which the States bear to the Gen- 
eral Government, though less complex, and far less 
exposed to the danger of being brought into conflict 
with the paramount authority. The manner in which 
they may perform their respective functions, is pre- 
scribed by the general law of the State, and is plain and 
simple. The qualified voters of the town being assem- 
bled, are requested to form themselves into a regular 
deliberative body; a chairman or presiding officer is ap- 



232 THE LIFE OF 

pointed by the voters present, (unless some officer of 
the town should be there, whose duty it may be, ex- 
officio, to preside,) a clerk also is appointed; and compe- 
bent number of constables, or other peace officers, are 
required to be in attendance, whose duty it is, under 
the control of the presiding officers, to preserve or- 
der, and to enforce obedience to the commands of the 
body. 

This deliberative assembly, when thus fully organi- 
zed, generally takes cognizance of all those local mat- 
ters which peculiarly concern the comfort, the con- 
venience, the health, the safety, the pecuniary interests, 
and the general well-being of their little community. 
The ordinary topics of discussion and of consideration 
which come before them, regard principally, perhaps, the 
establishment of local schools, the selection and compen- 
sation of teachers, and the operation generally of the 
educational system of the country, the granting and the 
revocation of licenses for taverns, ferries, etc., the regu- 
lation of estrays and of pounds, the making of adequate 
provision for the poor, for the construction of bridges, 
for the repair of highways, and the levying, collection, 
and disbursement of public taxes for these and for an- 
alagous purposes; the appointment also of local officers, 
and the regulation and enforcement of their proper ac- 
countability; in short, the entire local economy and 
police of .the town, constitute very properly subjects for 
the action and final regulation of these organized com- 
munities. 

An organized "town meeting," thus formed, becomes 
in fact both theoretically and practically a regular de- 
liberative body — a local Legislature — a Congress in min- 
iature — being subject in the transactions of business to 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 233 

the same rules, governed by the same parliamentary 
laws, having all the same characteristics, and perform- 
ing but within more restricted limits, the same functions 
as those more elevated bodies. In all the deliberations 
of these deliberative assemblies and in all the discussions 
which take place before them, all the qualified members 
of the community, young and old, have a right to partici- 
pate. And what a field for the first development of ge- 
nius ; what a theater for the exercise and display of elo- 
quence in debate; what a fund of useful knowledge on 
subjects connected with the public affairs of the country 
is here opened, almost at every man's door, to the young 
and the aspiring statesman! 

Such was the New England plan of "town meetings." 
What possible contrivance can be imagined so admirably 
calculated to familiarize all men with the public business 
of the country; to accustom the young and the old to 
the forms of deliberative assemblies ; to fit them all, 
according to their respective capacities for Legislators, 
and indeed for all the higher grades of public life? 

Interwoven as this system was with all the machine- 
ry of their government at home, and so congenial as it 
manifestly was both in theory and practical operation 
with those principles of political freedom and of self- 
government in which they had been educated and for 
which they had so long and so earnestly contended, it 
was quite natural that the colonists should desire to 
adopt it and plant it deeply among the fundamental es- 
tablishments of the nascent commonwealth. They did 
so desire; and with a lively interest they looked forward 
for the future solution of the problem whether here, in 
the "far West," they might hope to see that system 
take root again. But they must abide their time. A 
30 



234 THE LIFE OF 

majority of the Judges of the Territory appointed by 
the General Government, it will be remembered, were 
of New England. They had not the power to "make 
laivs ;" but jointly with the Governor they were required 
to adopt such, from the codes of the original States, as 
in their discretion might seem to them appropriate. 
Accordingly, and at an early period, they adopted a 
law which purported to vest in the Courts of Quarter 
Sessions, the authority to divide their respective coun- 
ties into political townships, and to clothe them with 
many of those corporate and municipal powers the 
"towns" in New England were accustomed to exercise. 
This initiatory step was important, and of great prom- 
ise. But while the Indian war continued but little if 
any progress could be made in developing and estab- 
lishing the plan. 

Following closely in the wake of the Ohio Company, 
J. C. Symmes and his associates effected a large pur- 
chase of land between the Miamis, comprising the re- 
gion in which Cincinnati now looms up — "the Queen 
City of the West!" The terms upon which the pur- 
chase was made were very similar to those of the Ohio 
Company's purchase. The settlers upon it were prin- 
cipally from New Jersey. Its prosperity and rapid ad- 
vances in population were very greatly promoted by the 
concentration there, for many years, of the North- West- 
ern armies. The expeditions of Harmar, St. Clair, and 
of Wayne, respectively, moved from that point. The 
extensive region between the Scioto and the Little Mi- 
ami had hardly yet begun to be settled; nor had the 
migrations from Connecticut yet made successful pro- 
gress in forming their establishments upon the " West- 
ern Reserve" of that State. But the battle of 1794 



WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE. 235 

opened a new era, The proud spirit of the native In- 
dian was broken. Quietude and security pervaded the 
forests and the prairies, and peace smiled upon their 
borders. These migrating parties, slowly at first, and 
cautiously feeling their way, began to penetrate the 
country in all directions; then emigrants from Virginia 
and from Maryland spread themselves over the rich val- 
leys of the Scioto and the Little Miami. Connecticut 
sent her spirited sons, also, to domiciliate themselves 
upon her " Western Reserve." The Keystone State 
peopled rapidly the counties of Belmont and Jefferson; 
and a dense population poured over the wide-spread 
country all around, like a flood. Already the Yankees 
were outnumbered, and scarcely exceeded one-third the 
entire population of that which is the State now. The 
favorite measure of the first, the pioneer adventurers, 
was in danger of defeat at last. 

But, when has Yankee perseverance been known to 
falter? The inhabitants of the river counties above 
were opposed to the plan; it was unknown to them; 
why should they try new experiments? They were 
men of routine. They had long practiced upon the ax- 
iom that it is wise to "let well-enough alone!" The 
opposition of the people of the Scioto Valley was more 
active and vehement. They had heard perhaps of Yan- 
kee speculations in "wooden nutmegs." They opposed 
the plan with bitterness. Derision and mockery were 
their weapons when calm reasoning failed, and when the 
system seemed likely to be fastened upon the country, 
they sought to make it matter of burlesque, and sneer- 
ingly to propose that the Yankees of Washington coun- 
ty should send over to them experts, to teach them how 
to organize and conduct "a Yankee town meeting." 



236 WILLIAM WOODBRIDbE. 

Though too young then to take part in the political af- 
fairs of the country, I was not too young to take some 
notice of passing events and to sympathize with my 
brother Yankees in their final triumph in this matter. 
The New Englanders of the "Reserve" furnished a host 
in support of the plan ; and the New Jersey emigrants 
of Hamilton county assimilated themselves more natur- 
ally with the Yankees in all their policy. They united 
in countenancing this measure and it was adopted. 
Then it became indeed u un fait accompli." The Yankees 
triumphed; and now, that the system has long since 
found a place in the political machinery of the country, 
let it be fortified, and enlarged, and embellished; let it 
be made what in its origin it was designed to be — the 
monitor and the friend of self-government ; a school for 
young statesmen; at once the birth-place, the nurse, and 
the home of the free ! 

But important as it may be that we should strength- 
en, and enlarge, and protect this beautiful feature in 
your political organism, yet, my friends, let us faithful- 
ly remember that the forms of freedom may exist with- 
out the substance; and that no true and national liberty 
can long exist among any people, unless combined with 
a widely diffused intelligence and with a deep and per- 
vading sense of our moral and religious responsibility to 
that God who was the great Architect of the Universe, 
and its only present supporter! 



L 'SRARYOF 



CONGRESS 



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